In this short blog post I’ll be summarizing what I learnt these past years about Continue reading: An overview of what’s out there for reproducibility with R

Visit the post for more.  ( 6 min )

“Whenever you are in Lagos, the streets are never silent and never still,” writes Yewande Komolafe of the 15 million-person metropolis where she grew up. In My Everyday Lagos (available October 24), the Brooklyn-based food writer, recipe developer, and food stylist for The New York Times leads readers through the streets, markets, and homes of this city by the sea. After decades spent in culinary school, restaurant kitchens, and test kitchens in the United States, Komolafe sees Nigeria and its many varied cuisines through both fresh and deeply familiar eyes. Komolafe cautions, “I implore you not to approach this cookbook from the perspective of an outsider.” Rather, she hopes readers will dive deep into the book's delicious offerings, whether or not they already stock woodsy calabash nut…  ( 30 min )

There’s nothing spooky about the Rite Aid on Fairmount Avenue in Philadelphia. Inside, you’ll find bright fluorescent lights, neatly lined-up products, and happy signage reminding you to use your shopper loyalty card. This modern drug store is far from a place paranormal investigators might want to explore. They do, however, want to investigate the famous—and famously haunted—Eastern State Penitentiary just two blocks to the west. Nonetheless, while Eastern State Penitentiary certainly played host to many unjust and inhumane events, the Rite Aid was actually built on top of an 18th-century mass grave site. Yet the drug store has no reputation for ghostly activity. On the surface, there’s an obvious difference between these two locations. One is a brightly-lit, modern chain store, and t…  ( 21 min )

Oginoya, now a major company known across Japan, was originally an inn adjacent to the Kirizumi hot springs, visited by such historical figures as Hirofumi Itō, Katsu Kaishū, and Akiko Yosano. Also among those luminaries was Katsura Tarō, who would later become Japan’s prime minister. During his visit to the Oginoya inn, Katsura mentioned the government’s plans to construct a railroad in the area. Hearing this, the innkeeper decided to shift his business, moving to the town of Yokokawa and establishing a kiosk just as the station opened in 1885. Though the new business was a success, the remote mountainous town did not receive many visitors to begin with, save for those traveling between Takasaki and Karuizawa. To provide warm meals to those passengers on the last leg of their journeys, Oginoya created tōge-no-kamameshi (“kettle rice of the mountain pass”) in 1957, now one of the most iconic station bentos of all time. Kamameshi is a traditional Japanese rice dish cooked in an iron pot with a variety of ingredients. Oginoya’s “kettle rice” consists of chicken, quail egg, shiitake mushroom, bamboo shoot, burdock root, green peas, chestnut, pickled ginger and apricot, laid out on the soy sauce-based takikomi gohan. It comes in a Mashiko ware clay pot instead of the typical iron kettle, giving a more rustic feel to it—and not only that, it’s a souvenir you can take home. Oginoya’s kettle rice is not only a must-try for tourists, but also a long-standing local favorite. As such, the people of Annaka often find themselves in common trouble: too many pots at home! But not to worry; the pottery has plenty of reuse potential for whatever purpose you can think of. While it’s commonly used as a planter or weight, old or unneeded pots are donated back to Oginoya to be repurposed in several ways, most notably recycled for local paving. If you enjoy camping or a bit of old-world cooking, you can also cook rice or even bake bread in it.  ( 15 min )

Across America and around the world, cities, and towns are turning to public art as a potential engine of tourism–looking for something (anything!) eye-catching enough to convince people to spend more time in town. In Salina, Kansas, this intersection of art and commerce is driven by the Salina Kanvas Project, and their largest commission to date has been wrapping a historic mill with grand images of children at play. In Salina's case, the building that comprises the canvas for the mural may be just as compelling as the art itself. The 100-foot-tall building was once the H.D. Lee Flour Mill. It was completed in 1898, and was operated for years by Henry David Lee, whose other business, a mercantile store, was already prospering. In 1913, Lee produced his first garment, an overall called L…  ( 14 min )

These centuries-old walls hold the gastronomical heritage of Mexico's traditional sweets. Founded in 1874 by brothers Alfredo and Luis Guízar de Arias, this traditional confectionary store is one of the oldest in Mexico City. Around 150 recipes from the north, south, and central regions of the country are produced artisanally in copper pots using wooden paddles with traditional ingredients. Initially, the sweets were brought from different states all over Mexico, but as their popularity and demand grew, the family began buying recipes from their partners. They soon began to produce the confections in the basement of their home and even invented some recipes of their own. The sweets produced then became a mix of Indigenous and European traditions. Today the sweets are produced in a separate workshop and another location can be found in the Colonia Roma. Nowadays, visitors can take a step back in time into the 19th-century French-style confectionary store and share a taste with generations past. It's the perfect spot to stock up on marranitos (pig-shaped cookies flavored with unrefined piloncillo sugar) or sugar skulls for the Day of the Dead. Why not try a huevo real [royal egg], an egg-yolk bread with honey and cinnamon that was even given to one of the viceroys of New Spain?  ( 14 min )

The Atlantic coastline of County Mayo is full of dramatic features, but Dún na mBó is something not to be missed. Found on the Belmullet Peninsula just south of Erris Head, this remarkable place features a winning confluence of nature and public art: a natural blowhole accentuated by an evocative sculpture that doubles as a means of keeping spectators safe from tumbling into the hole. The blowhole at Dún na mBó (also known as Doonamo Point) is located near the site of an ancient promontory fort that likely dates to the Iron Age. Blowholes are created by the enormous pressure of the sea eroding landward and upward, eventually creating a hole through which the water can spew at times of high tide or turgid currents.   Nearby there are other wonderfully scenic spots—Eagle Island Lighthouse can be seen from the coast, and the narrow headland of of Ceann an Eanaigh (Annagh Head) is a short drive from here.  ( 13 min )

Take one look at a Poitou donkey and you will fall in love. Meet one and you will be in love for life.  About an hour west of La Rochelle, in the quiet village of Dampierre-Sur-Boutonne you can find the the L'Asinerie du Baudet du Poitou. It is a public center on a historic farm dedicated to the conservation of the Poitou donkey. In the 1970s, the Poitou population was down to only 44 individual animals. One of the largest herds belonged to Suzanne Auger on her farm, La Tillauderie, which eventually became the L'Asinerie du Baudet du Poitou. The 55-hectare facility is part of the Echappées Nature network, which guarantees that beautiful areas of natural beauty within the Charente-Maritime region of France are preserved and are available to the public year-round. There are wide paths th…  ( 14 min )

The Wat Mahathat is one of the medieval Buddhist temples that comprise the World Heritage site of Ayutthaya, an ancient city steeped in history. It's home to what is perhaps the city’s most photographed, iconic, and haunting sight: the Buddha head in tree roots. A sandstone Buddha with a mild, merciful smile, the head sits perfectly positioned at the foot of a tall bodhi tree. Its roots, tentacular and vein-like, seem to swallow the Buddha head but fails to shroud its face, as if intentionally avoiding sacrilege. Made in the 1600s, the statue is believed to have been decapitated by the Siamese invaders in the 18th century, who also purposefully defaced and mutilated a large number of the effigies in Ayutthaya to enrage their devout Buddhist enemies. Deserted and left to rot, the head lay in the ruins among the dirt and weeds for year after year, until the bodhi tree started to grow on the spot, its roots lifting the Buddha’s head and keeping it upright—a miracle, or so some say.  ( 14 min )

Valberget Utisiktspunt was designed to replace the nearly 200-year-old wooden version.  Construction of the 85-foot (26-meter) tall tower took place between 1850 and 1853 and was led by Christian Heinrich Grosch, Norway's most famous architect of the time. From the tower, the watchmen could see from one end of Stavanger to the other. Early signs of fire were easy to spot from the tower's vantage point on top of a hill. Residents of Stavanger were warned by the ringing of a bell and the firing of cannons. The watchmen inside the tower worked in teams of four to six men and rotated solo patrols during their six-hour summer and eight-hour winter shifts. By the 18th century, the watchmen's role changed to only focus on fire detection duties. The last watch took place in 1922, completed by Tobias Sandstøl, who had held the position for 18 years. Providing there are no giant cruise ships in port, the tower provides amazing views over Stavanger, including the wooden houses at Gamle Stavanger, many of which survive today.  ( 13 min )

Though a landmark of the town, the Gohon Keyaki or “Five Zelkovas” of Kami-Itabashi are often met with contempt, especially from drivers who consider them an eyesore and the cause of traffic problems as they take up quite a bit of space in the middle of a road. Despite that, they are unlikely to be removed anytime soon, and their historic status may not be the only reason. The Five Zelkovas once stood together on the premises of the mansion of Yūjūro Iijima, the mayor of Kami-Itabashi back when it was a village, who generously donated his land for the construction of a road cutting through the area. There was one condition: that the zelkovas were not to be removed. Later, following the end of World War II, developers attempted to remove the trees to expand the road, but had to give up after various accidents and illnesses fell upon them, which some interpreted as a curse. To this day, the Five Zelkovas continue to stand tall and proud, though two of the original trees died in the 1970s and had to be replaced. Rumored to be haunted, some claim to have seen the ghost of an old lady or heard sobbing voices here at night.  ( 13 min )

Built in 1906, Jamieson Dry Goods Store (later Jamieson Department Store) served what was then the booming border town of Trinidad, Colorado; selling everything from fine dresses to kitchen appliances and toys. The department store was converted into a museum in 1991 to display the works donated by Mitchell's sister, Ethel "Tot" Mitchell-Erickson, after Mitchell's death in 1977. Often called the "King of Western Pulp," Mitchell is widely recognized for his western magazine covers, created for magazines like Wild West Weekly and Cowboy Stories. He was also a prolific painter and collector of Western memorabilia. Because Mitchell preferred not to sell his paintings, the majority of his work and belongings remain together in Trinidad. The museum is home to 250 of Mitchell's paintings including his nocturnes (night-pieces), thousands of photographs, sketches, and 100 or more paintings by Mitchell's friends and contemporaries. Other objects like boots, whips, and hats owned and used by Mitchell are all at the museum, including over 15 saddles.  ( 13 min )

The Lancaster County Jail was designed by Robert Mills and built in 1823. The building was designated a national historic landmark in 1973 due to its connection to Robert Mills, who is recognized as the first American-born architect, and who is most famously known for designing the Washington Monument. The building incorporates several design features that are linked to jail reforms intended to improve living conditions for both prisoners and guards. A few of these changes included separate living quarters for the inmates and guards, separating debtors from other inmates, and improving airflow into the building to name a few. The facility is beautifully preserved and can be viewed from Gay Street in Lancaster.  ( 13 min )

The beating heart of Bergamo’s historical center is Piazza Vecchia (Old Square). One side of this square is occupied by Palazzo Nuovo (New Palace), which is an outstanding example of a project that ran amok—construction began in the early 17th century and ended in 1958. The deconsecrated church by the name of Ex-Chiesa di San Michele all’Arco maintains its Baroque entrance beside Palazzo Nuovo, but the actual church is enclosed within the walls of the palace. When this church was first mentioned is a matter of debate, with some historians claiming it was in the 8th, and some in the 9th century.  It is also unclear whether the location of the church mentioned in these documents is exactly where the church is located today. Finally, the appellation “all’Arco” (at the arch) refers to a stru…  ( 14 min )

Although this roadside museum in Big Timber, Montana, may sound wild, it’s actually a history museum sharing the story of Sweet Grass County and the nearby mountain range, the Crazy Mountains. The Crazy Mountains got their name from the Apsáalooke (Crow) Nation, who would head to the area to pray and fast, sometimes receiving revelations in return. They called the region Awaxaawapìa Pìa, which translates to “Ominous Mountains” or perhaps “crazy.” There is a more outlandish—and apocryphal—story of a pioneer woman whose family was killed by Piegan (Blackfeet) Tribal members, who then fled into the mountains and lived as an outcast. This false and colonialist history is still sometimes still shared today. The museum itself is mostly concerned with the settled history of the area of Big Timber. Exhibits include a look at the first settlers, industries such as mining and wool, and the Cobblestone City, a miniature diorama of Big Timber. The museum is a site on the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail and features a garden with the types of plants that were collected from the expedition. Perhaps the highlight of the museum is the stabbur, a storehouse built and maintained by the Sons of Norway Fjeldheim Lodge #524, to honor Big Timber’s Norwegian heritage. Don’t worry, this crazy stabbur is completely harmless, and it even has a grass roof.  ( 13 min )

Excerpted and adapted with permission from What the Bears Know: How I Found Truth and Magic in America’s Most Misunderstood Creatures, A Memoir by Animal Planet’s “The Bear Whisperer,” by Steve Searles and Chris Erskine, published October 2023 by Pegasus Books. All rights reserved. In the late 1990s, the snow-globe village of Mammoth Lakes, California, hired hunter Steve Searles to shoot and kill 16 troublesome bears. In the course of his preparations, the bears won Steve over, and he soon developed nonlethal tactics to keep them out of harm’s way. In time, he became a local folk hero, a reality TV star, and a nationally recognized expert in the humane treatment of animals. Don’t tell Steve that. The gruff outdoorsman will quickly remind you the bears are the only heroes in this mounta…  ( 28 min )

Mastering the art of thought editing Continue reading on The Writing Cooperative »  ( 7 min )

Knowing what to do and when to do it Continue reading on The Writing Cooperative »  ( 8 min )

Continue reading on The Writing Cooperative »  ( 8 min )

A paper that found smoking rates in the United States fell faster than expected as more people started using e-cigarettes has been retracted over the objections of its authors, who have filed a complaint with the journal’s publisher.  As we reported in July, BMC Public Health informed the authors of “Population-level counterfactual trend modelling to … Continue reading Authors file complaint with publisher as journal retracts vaping paper  ( 8 min )

We are pleased to present an excerpt from Trust in Medical Research, a freely available new book by Warwick P. Anderson, emeritus professor of physiology and biomedical sciences at Monash University in Victoria, Australia.  It has always been difficult for me to admit that we have a genuine and substantial problem of fraud and rubbish … Continue reading To guard against fraud, medical research should be a profession:  A book excerpt  ( 11 min )

Nobel laureates sometimes wait 20 years or more after making their award-worthy discovery to receive the prize

September shattered a record for the highest temperature anomaly of any month and could help push 2023 to be the first year to exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial temperatures

But dengue in wealthy countries could divert medication away from poorer nations that may need it more

A colorful quirk of quantum optics could lead to significant advances in quantum communication and computing

The popular decongestant phenylephrine is not effective, an FDA panel found. Here’s what to use instead.

Three scientists won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their discovery of quantum dots, an entirely new class of material that is used in large-screen TVs and cancer surgery

Canine experts weigh in on a TikTok dog vision filter and the rich sensory world of humanity’s best friends

Cats have attained evolutionary perfection

My former student, Xiaoyu He, invented this elegant puzzle and shared it with me. Puzzle. We’ve got a murder mystery on our hands. There are four suspects, and it’s pretty clear that one of them is the actual murderer. But here’s the twist: there are also four witnesses who know who the killer is. Now, […]  ( 5 min )

Plus: Mayor Frey picks Minnehaha Avenue site for new Third Precinct; Bloomberg profiles Majority Whip Tom Emmer; possible second Avivo Village tiny home shelter coming; and more.  ( 6 min )

At the very least, McCarthy’s brutal takedown allows Emmer, R-6th District, who currently holds the No. 3 position, to move one rung up the GOP leadership ladder.  ( 18 min )

Those who support a plan to add bike trails to the avenue say they’re opposed by a vocal minority. However, the departures of three supportive City Council members present an opportunity to the plan’s critics.  ( 19 min )

People of color who distrust the police are more likely to distrust the government and less likely to vote, perpetuating longstanding racial inequalities in Minnesota politics.  ( 13 min )

MinnPost doesn’t treat our political coverage like sports.  ( 9 min )

Plus: Sales tax increase goes into effect in Twin Cities metro; Olmsted County mulls over marijuana ordinance; man accused of "Wizard of Oz" ruby slipper theft to change plea; and more.  ( 6 min )

The subtitle of this new NBER working paper is: Teamsters, Truckers, and Impending Innovations.  Here is the abstract: We consider large, permanent shocks to individual occupations whose arrival date is uncertain. We are motivated by the advent of self-driving trucks, which will dramatically reduce demand for truck drivers. Using a bare-bones overlapping generations model, we examine […] The post Obsolescence Rents appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         Comments In reply to Reason. The data I have is for the US, but it's ... by Dan Hanson In reply to Mike. Telephone operators and even private ... by superdestroyer There were hundreds of thousands of switchboard operators in ... by Mike In reply to Dan Hanson. Are your claims about the US, the ... by Reason In reply to Anti-Gnostic. I suspect unions are to blame in ... by Reason Plus 10 more... Related Stories The Labor Market Returns of Being An Artist Will misinformation be an electoral problem? New issue of Econ Journal Watch  ( 7 min )

1. Lydia Davis update. 2. Soumaya Keynes and Janan Ganesh, both FT columnists, have been on a roll lately.  Here is one by Janan, here are the recent ones by Soumaya. 3. Translating Latin demonology manuals with GPT-4 and Claude. 4. Why do some people from the past become memes? 5. The gay younger brothers hypothesis. The post Wednesday assorted links appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         Comments In reply to Viking. I think that gender atypical behavior ... by AMW In reply to Objection. You're just gonna leave out the fact ... by Derek2545 In reply to AMW. Maybe gay sons and daughters are so great ... by M if you need to see the dean o'diversity psychobabble in circles ... by community notes In reply to Steven. Hold on…..are you calling homosexuality ... by Justin Chang Plus 10 more...  ( 6 min )

The labor market penalty to choosing the arts seems to be rising: Using individual-level data from the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS) between 2006 and 2021, I study the labor market experiences of artists. First, I find a decline in the relative earnings of artists to non-artists from zero to a 15% disadvantage. After […] The post The Labor Market Returns of Being An Artist appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         Comments In reply to Microchannels. Also, which discipline isn't ... by JSK In reply to rsm. You seem to be trolling this thread. If not, ... by Tom B In reply to rsm. The line of people that would like a Van ... by PHinton Photos meant the end of visual art. Its an obsolete skill. ... by Bob from Ohio In reply to Some Toronto Guy. What if you turned ghettos into ... by rsm Plus 10 more... Related Stories Work From Home Works Obsolescence Rents New issue of Econ Journal Watch  ( 7 min )

That is the topic of my latest Bloomberg column, here is one bit: …consider the story that former President Barack Obama was not born in the US. It did not take off because someone forged a copy of an Indonesian birth certificate. Instead, many people approached the issue wanting to believe that Obama was not […] The post Will misinformation be an electoral problem? appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         Comments In reply to Lee A. Arnold. “It's been called the U.S.'s ... by King Tut In reply to Naveen K. There are at least 20 different ... by Derek2275 In reply to Naveen K. People are misinformed about statistics ... by Bob In reply to Old Programmer. The policy solution is to accept ... by s In reply to TMC. You guys just cant admit that a police ... by steve Plus 10 more... Related Stories Obsolescence Rents From the comments, on OWS and PEPFAR Meta AI plus glasses  ( 7 min )

We spoke to experts to find out what to look for when buying extra virgin olive oil—and tasted 14 olive oils.  ( 36 min )

From classic boeuf Bourguignon to Texan chili con carne and vibrant Nigerian beef stew, we've got you covered with the best beef stew recipes.  ( 14 min )

Also the SEC’s fiscal-year-end incentives, bonds on sale and money-laundering line-drawing.  ( 2 min )

As I am waiting in Prague airport for my flight back home, after a few days spent discussing the options of the SWGO collaboration for the detectors we are going to build, I came across (through compulsive scrolling on twitter) a thread that caught my attention. It was about emails to academics on PhD openings. Since I found the discussion there a bit too forgiving on the academics, I wish to express my position here - possibly in a less toxic environment. read more  ( 6 min )

Last week I received in my mailbox a copy of the Princeton University Press book "Machine Learning for Physics and Astronomy" by Viviana Acquaviva. They sent me a copy because I had reviewed its contents for Princeton Press.I am happy with the book. When I accepted to review it, I was a bit hesitant because I am not a computer scientist. I might pass as an expert in machine learning because after all I have been developing such tools for 20 years now (or maybe I should say over 30, as my first attempt was in 1992, with a bootstrap-powered classification method), but I feel I still lack knowledge in some of the theoretical underpinnings, and there are holes in my knowledge base.  read more  ( 5 min )

As you may have heard, Uri Simonsohn, Joe Simmons, and Leif Nelson learned a lot by reanalyzing data from an article, “Signing at the beginning makes ethics salient and decreases dishonest self-reports in comparison to signing at the end”; see … Continue reading →  ( 21 min )

Aywren's Nook Little pieces of joy Pixel Galaxy 📌 melankorin Antonio's Blog Smaller Pictures📌  ( 1 min )

Yesterday evening in a restaurant, our attentive server frequently asked us things like "Are we ready to order" and "How are we doing?". This waiter-we is pretty common, so I didn't notice it, though one of the other diners did. But when another server brought us a complimentary bit of sushi with the explanation "Here's some […]  ( 17 min )

I’m writing this post from memory. Yesterday, I was talking to some students and quoted Norman Mailer as saying, “a fact is a compression of nuances that alienates the reality.” Now, as I recall, (and I will check when I get the chance), the actual sentence (somewhere in, I think, The Presidential Papers), says, “…alienate … Continue reading Fact and Nuance →  ( 5 min )

U.S. health officials have never authorized the use of an avian flu vaccine for any animal in the country — not even poultry — for reasons ranging from practical to political. But when endangered condors started dying from the deadly H5N1 strain last year, wildlife officials rang the alarm.  ( 19 min )

Introduction Continue reading: Creating Stacked Dot Plots in R: A Guide with Base R and ggplot2

I’ve been looking back at my very first published paper (for “reasons”), and in it there is the group , where is a compact manifold, and is the Banach Lie group of projective unitary operators on an infinite-dimensional separable Hilbert space (one needs to take the norm topology here). This very large group turns out … Continue reading A fun “little” example of a crossed module  ( 13 min )

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A self-administred poll in Nature about the respondents’ feeling about the prizes, with only 15% thinking it would be preferable to have none. As an absurd concept of singling out one scientist out the flock of top scientists, of comparing chalk and cheese, of idealising “great men” (since winners are predominantly men) with the ensuing […]  ( 6 min )

The Prehistoric Museum showcases the unique natural history of Utah. It is also home to an active paleontology lab, complete Allosaurus and Camarasaurus skeletons, along with various artifacts from the native tribes in Utah.  ( 13 min )

Within Berg's Bazaar in Riga, Latvia is the Jana Seta Map Shop. Shelves reach the ceiling and are filled with paper maps. At the end of the Cold War, many maps created in the former USSR became available and this shop bought them all. All of the maps inside have been scanned but there are still many originals available for sale. The details on these maps are amazing, yet scary. This shop also is filled with travel books and globes.  ( 12 min )

An extinct volcano on the island of Rapa Nui (Easter Island), where visitors can drive up to the crater to look inside. The location also supports a fantastic of the city and the ocean on both sides of the island.  ( 12 min )

Dr Russell's Imaginarium is the name given to this quite fascinating museum which is situated in the outer Perth suburb of Guildford. Inside holds a treasure trove of items that the owner, Phil Russell, has gathered over a number of years. After overcoming a life-threatening accident at the age of 17, Russell pursued his lifetime ambition of opening up his own antique store and showing off his collection to the world. What started as a small collection of items has now turned into a museum and visitors can interact with antique items. The collection specializes in the weird and wonderful and has been built up over a period of 45 years. There are a range of items on show, including props and memorabilia from popular movies and television series such as Dr. Who and Star Wars, old advertising signs, and sex toys from over 100 years ago.  ( 13 min )

On the first floor of the Palace of Culture and Science building down the street from the Warsaw main train station is The Museum of Technology. It is dedicated to the wide variety of contributions the Polish people have made to science and technology. This museum displays the first Enigma machine developed in Poland. Computers, cameras, motorcycles, and cars are also included. The displays are engaging and English is included in all of the signage.  ( 13 min )

D-Day has become remembered as one of the most important days in history. The incredible tale of the combined Allied forces fighting back against the Axis powers as they swept across Europe has become a cornerstone of history. On the western shore of Southampton Water, relics of the D-Day are slowly being worn away to the sea. Small concrete bulks, known as "beetles," were part of giant floating piers used to offload the mass of vehicles and supplies onto the French Coast. These giant concrete piers were called Mulberry Harbours and their engineering was nothing short of incredible. While some Mulberry Harbour relics survive around the U.K. coastline, the sheltered waters of Southampton Water have allowed a few pieces to survive in relatively good condition along the shoreline, while rem…  ( 14 min )

The distinctive character of North Macedonia's relatively small capital, with a population of roughly 600,000, is encapsulated by the whimsical question: "How many statues grace Skopje's streets? I can't say for sure, but there may well be more statues than residents!" In fact, the city center is adorned with hundreds of extravagant, faux-classical, patriotic sculptures that didn't exist prior to the turn of the millennium. The Bridge of Civilizations serves as a prime example of this abundance, boasting an impressive collection of over 30 sculptures along a single downtown pedestrian crossing. Skopje's eccentric transformation commenced in 2008 with a budget ranging from €80 to €500 million. The project aimed to boost tourism and establish a distinctive city identity but sparked debates about diverting funds from essential infrastructure projects in favor of constructing kitsch, ornate statues, and neoclassical structures adorned with elaborate columns. This controversy led to protests and incidents of vandalism, including frequent paint-bombings of monuments. In Skopje's main square, you'll discover the city's largest statue featuring Alexander the Great on his loyal steed Bucephalus. However, it goes by the alias 'The Great Warrior' due to ongoing disputes between North Macedonians and Greeks regarding his heritage. This impressive 72-foot (22-meter) bronze statue, surrounded by warriors and a central fountain, serves as the centerpiece of the city's nightly light shows. Yet, it remains an anonymous tribute to one of history's greatest military commanders. The irony lies in the city's quest for recognition while unable to use his true name, Alexander the Great, showcasing the complex historical narratives woven into Skopje's streets.  ( 14 min )

Dario Argento’s 1975 Italian film Profondo Rosso, internationally known as Deep Red, is often considered a masterpiece of the giallo genre. Giallo films combine elements of murder mystery stories with tropes typically found in slasher movies. Often the protagonist has to figure out who the murderer is as characters are systematically killed off. Films like Argento's Deep Red have gone on to inspire films like the Scream franchise and I Know What You Did Last Summer. Much of the filming for Deep Red took place on-location in Turin, Italy, the center of Satanist practice in Europe at the time. Especially recognizable are the Teatro Carignano, Santa Costanza, Piazza CLN, and Villa Scott, known as Villa del Bambino Urlante in the film, which all play a key role in Deep Red. Built in 1902 for Alfonso Scott, an executive of the short-lived auto company, Villa Scott stands in the affluent Borgo Po neighborhood, west of the city center. It’s one of the major works by architect Pietro Fenoglio, a pioneer of the Italian Art Nouveau movement called Liberty style. The villa appears in the Argento film as the Villa del Bambino Urlante, the “House of the Screaming Child.” Rumored to be haunted, the villa sits abandoned on the outskirts of Rome (instead of Turin as in real life) and hides a vital clue to the mystery, revealing a disturbing mural of a child holding a blood-soaked knife over a ghastly body when the protagonist Marc investigates the site. At the time of the production of Deep Red, the villa was owned by a convent of nuns and operated as a boarding school for girls. To use the location, the production team sent all the girls and the nuns away to Rimini and paid for their vacation.  ( 14 min )

It’s almost over. For years, Luigi Giovanni Brusa has struggled for air and battled a persistent cough. In his final moments, he crumples back into a seat of rough stone. His arms limp at his side, a devoted woman to his right looks at him with affectionate concern, and perhaps a bit of surrender, rubbing his chest. It’s a touching scene—carved entirely from gray granite. It feels almost like an imposition to cast eyes on this vulnerable moment captured in stone. But that’s how Brusa wanted it. The master granite carver in northern Barre, Vermont, just 45 miles southeast of Burlington, enlisted one of his most talented peers, Donato Coletti, to hand carve his gravestone. The finished monument shows Brusa’s final moments as he struggles for breath after years of inhaling granite dust. W…  ( 19 min )

Sarasota, Florida, was the home of two of the five original Ringling Brothers. As such, it has a strong connection to the history of the circus. In 1985, the city decided to erect a circus ring of fame, modeled after the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Today it lives in St. Armand's Circle, where passersby can see plaques for P.T. Barnum, the Ringling brothers, and countless acrobats, animal trainers, daredevils, tightrope walkers, trapeze artists, and more. The largest monument is of John Ringling himself.  ( 13 min )

Moving at a whopping speed of 0.3 meters per second, the Viennese City Hall houses one of only six Paternosters in the whole city. The city hall paternoster (Latin for "Our Father") was built in 1918 and houses enough space in each cabin for two brave people. The creaking as it moves might make you start praying for its namesake, but have no fear, no harm will come to you if you go past the final floors on the top and bottom. Just stay calm and watch the lift switch directions. And who knows, you might just come out the other side a braver person.  ( 13 min )

Looking somewhat like a meteorite sitting on a pedestal, this stone is a memorial to the 1968 Tlatelolco Massacre. During the 1960s, and in 1968 particularly, massive student protests erupted around the world, from the United States to Czechoslovakia to Japan. Mexico was no different. In 1968, protests in Mexico intensified ahead of when Mexico City was set to hold the Summer Olympics. At the time, students were protesting the government and police violence after riot police and army personnel killed several students at the National Preparatory School in San Ildefonso in an effort to end a violent student mob that erupted after a soccer game. One of the main schools involved in the protests that followed was the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). (UNAM oversaw the Nationa…  ( 15 min )

Bagolino is a small village perched on the steep slopes of Val Sabbia. The history of this village goes back to the Ancient Roman Empire when it conquered these territories around the year 16 CE. There is evidence suggesting that the Romans established an outpost for changing horses along Val Sabbia. In due time, the settlement grew into a hamlet, and so an early iteration of Bagolino was born. Much more documented is the role the village played throughout the Middle Ages.  By and large, the village still retains a medieval feel with narrow, winding roads flanked by rows of old houses attached to one another, cobblestone staircases cutting through the historical center, and quaint little squares with timeworn fountains. The high concentration of houses and communal urban space suggests that the land is precious in these mountains.  Yet, space must be made for the dead as well as for the living.  A cemetery dating back to the Middle Ages was once located by the main church (Chiesa di San Rocco), but Napoleon, through the Edict of Saint Claude in 1804, forbade the burial of the dead within the confines of populated areas due to hygiene concerns. And so, the Old Cemetery was built on the outskirts of the village. Mirroring the row of old houses in the historical center of Bagolino, the Old Cemetery is characterized by a row of chapels along the road. These disparate chapels were commissioned by local affluent families, and they exhibit a wide array of architectural styles.  Behind the row of chapels is the burial ground for the less affluent. Here are hundreds of tombs, most of which are well over a century old.  Of note are ancient wrought iron crosses that testify to the mastery of local artisans.  ( 14 min )

The animal world is full of harbingers of doom—at least, according to superstitions. From the Tower of London’s ravens (whose departure would signal the fall of an entire nation) to the average black cat crossing your unlucky path, plenty of critters warn of woe. In Ominous Animals, we explore the lore—and the science—behind these finned, furry, and feathered messengers of impending calamity. In July, divers off the coast of Ruifang, Taiwan, encountered a glimmering, serpent-like figure suspended vertically in the water, like a metallic party streamer glinting in the sun. The creature was docile as the divers swam around it in awe but, back on land, word of its presence spread ripples of panic. In videos taken by the divers, the creature's mirror-like, scaleless skin seems to blend …  ( 20 min )

In 1968, the poet Diane di Prima moved from New York to San Francisco. She wanted to work with the Diggers, self-identified community anarchists who performed street theater and organized mutual aid projects, from free stores to free housing to the dissemination of produce, hot meals, and bread. Shortly after her arrival, Di Prima’s Volkswagen van was enlisted to help with the Diggers’ food distribution efforts. For Di Prima, who had come of age during McCarthyism and the FBI repression of the 1950s, the opportunity to turn her ideals into action was thrilling. “Suddenly to be able to be out in public, delivering food, having be-ins,” Di Prima said in a 1999 interview, “it just took a weight off your heart about having kept your mouth shut too long.” Over the next year, her household del…  ( 25 min )

Each week in October, University of Manchester Egyptologist Nicky Nielsen will share an intriguing aspect of ancient Egyptian beliefs and traditions surrounding death and the afterlife. On the morning of Oct. 16, 1817, Italian explorer Giovanni Battista Belzoni entered a narrow rock-cut fissure in the Valley of the Kings. As he navigated a long, sloping passageway, the light of Belzoni’s torch illuminated beautiful and, to the Italian, strange symbols covering both walls and ceiling. He had found the tomb of the Egyptian king Seti I (1323-1279 BC). “I may call this a fortunate day,” Belzoni would later write. “One of the best, perhaps, of my life.” In the very heart of the tomb, in the burial chamber of the king, Belzoni found what would later be recognized as one of the most detaile…  ( 18 min )

Listen and subscribe on Stitcher, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and all major podcast apps. In this episode of The Atlas Obscura Podcast, we visit a four-acre garden in Wilmington, Delaware, with characters and exhibits created using castoff materials and greenery. It invites kids to drop screens and rules, and instead give in to a state of play. Our podcast is an audio guide to the world’s wondrous, awe-inspiring, strange places. In under 15 minutes, we’ll take you to an incredible site, and along the way you’ll meet some fascinating people and hear their stories. Join us daily, Monday through Thursday, to explore a new wonder with cofounder Dylan Thuras and a neighborhood of Atlas Obscura reporters.  ( 14 min )

A Moral Dilemma: Colonialism, Oppression, and Individuality Continue reading on The Writing Cooperative »  ( 8 min )

You could be a published author in a few simple steps. Continue reading on The Writing Cooperative »  ( 8 min )

Continue reading on The Writing Cooperative »  ( 8 min )

Plus: Nonprofit Let Them Play MN comes under financial scrutiny; two new invasive pests invaded the state this summer; Strib cartoonist goes from full-time to freelance; former Twins sportswriter Jim Caple dies; and more.  ( 7 min )

A housing nonprofit and community groups are asking Minneapolis city officials to invest more resources into addressing ongoing crime in the area.  ( 14 min )

Businesses across southern Minnesota are keenly aware of the problems with our antiquated policies, as there are too few work visas for immigrants and the chaotic immigration system chokes off the ability of more migrants to legally access employment-based immigration.  ( 6 min )

“[The Minneapolis Sound] is different than any other type of music. We have the Minneapolis Sound and people around the world want that, but unless you’re here you won’t know the feeling of that.”  ( 11 min )

This Saturday, Liquid Music teams up with Milkweed Editions for a book launch, where Ellis will be bringing his saxophone and laptop and plans to play music, sing and read parts of the book, followed by a conversation with Chris Martin, editor-at-large for Milkweed Editions.  ( 10 min )

Plus: Ex-partner of Madeline Kingsbury charged with two counts of first-degree murder; undocumented Minnesotans can now apply for driver's licenses; the odds of 18 straight playoff losses for the Twins; and more.  ( 7 min )

Designed to ensure safer skies, “Air-Guardian” blends human intuition with machine precision, creating a more symbiotic relationship between pilot and aircraft.  ( 8 min )

Fish can be tricky to cook perfectly, but with these seven carefully constructed seafood stew recipes, you'll get excellent results every time.  ( 13 min )

Our favorite tips (from deglazing and seasoning to adding meat) for elevating any jar of tomato sauce to a place you're really happy with.  ( 16 min )

There is clearly a lot of negative emotional reactivity regarding these glasses going on here, but it’s worth thinking about the implications, both positive and negative. 1. They clearly can be built with current technology. Therefore, assuming they are useful, they will be built. 2. It clearly looks like they provide a much superior hands-free […] The post From the comments, on the new Meta smart glasses appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         Comments In reply to Slight Nitpick. ACN AcrobotJeff Daniels ... by Equestrian In reply to clear-eyed, blue collar guy. Cops' body cams ... by mikeInThe716 In reply to DRP. I think they'll increase the incidence of ... by Anti-Gnostic In reply to Moral Panic. Will the police be forced to wear ... by clear-eyed, blue collar guy In reply to PHinton. Model Y is the best selling car in the ... by aaron Plus 10 more...  ( 7 min )

1. On Stripe Press and homage to the printed book. 2. Scott Sumner movie reviews.  The very best links you will get here, if you are worthy of them that is. 3. NYT review of the new Michael Lewis book. 4. BAP responds to Michael Anton. 5. A fertility reckoning? 6. Social media referrals to […] The post Tuesday assorted links appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         Comments In reply to Anon. Claremont is not alt-right, and very ... by Anti-Gnostic In reply to Lord Action. Scaling back pensions so that ... by M In reply to seegs. Thanks. by anonprof In reply to PHinton. “It's moderately expensive if one of ... by JWatts In reply to JWatts. I realize that 1975 is a bit of an ... by JWatts Plus 10 more...  ( 6 min )

There is somewhat of an intellectual void in Republican leadership over the past 20 years. Occasionally that void creates space for a uniquely good idea that doesn’t align too well with ideology. When the Democrats are in charge, there are plenty of mainstream Democratic ideas to fill up the agenda, so nothing too unusual happens. […] The post From the comments, on OWS and PEPFAR appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         Comments Some exhibits in support of the commenter's thesis: ... by Sam In reply to RAD. So, you have to wonder why Republicans ... by Gridlock In reply to Tom T.. Any examples? The civilians are supposed ... by steve In reply to Reason. 25% of covid deaths are below age 65. ... by steve In reply to Rich Berger. None of trump's lawyers alleged ... by ? Plus 10 more... Related Stories Why have economically declining regions turned toward right-wing parties? Texas fact of the day, educational polarization issue *Selective Breeding and the Birth of Philosophy*  ( 6 min )

This is now twenty years of Econ Journal Watch, congratulations to Dan Klein!  Here is the table of contents: Volume 20, Number 2, September 2023 Screening the 1915 film The Birth of a Nation: In an article in the American Economic Review, Desmond Ang purports to show causal impact of screenings of the film between 1915 and […] The post New issue of Econ Journal Watch appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         Comments In reply to Paradox. Any rejection, for whatever reason, of ... by MikeP In reply to Viking. A conservative read of the homicide rate, ... by Viking There is a pre-print server: https://vixra.org/ that ... by ohwilleke Birth of a nation and lynching? ... by Viking In reply to MikeP. Any rejection, for whatever reason, of an ... by Paradox Plus 10 more... Related Stories Work From Home Works The need for hospital price transparency The PayPal StableCoin  ( 8 min )

An educated person will have all four levels of speech. The more highly educated they are, the higher up the scale their language capacity will go, though they may not be familiar with some of the argot of the lower levels. Of course, all four levels are language, but that is possible because "language" has […]  ( 11 min )

ChatGPT and similar AI programs give propagandists and intelligence agents a powerful new tool for interfering in politics. The clock is ticking on learning to spot this disinformation before the 2024 election

The Federal Emergency Management Agency will resume funding long-term rebuilding projects after withholding funds since August

NASA’s Perseverance rover has collected valuable samples, but a new report says the plan to fetch them is unworkable

NASA has reversed course on plans to curtail the New Horizons spacecraft’s planetary science studies following a rebellion among the mission’s leaders

Trust is built on social norms and basic predictability. AI is typically not designed with either

Drug users must be considered in health and climate preparedness efforts

The U.S. may not beat China at retrieving Martian rocks first, according to an independent review board’s conclusion. But the U.S. can still lead with an exchange of samples here on Earth

Next-generation 6G technology could “enable applications that we may not even imagine today”

Pierre Agostini, Ferenc Krausz, and Anne L’Huillier split the award for their ability to picture nature in a billionth of a billionth of a second

Whistleblowers, WhatsApp, SPAC projections, bribery, a new Sculptor bid, AI for hedge funds and an ethics competition.  ( 2 min )

The Museum of Mathematics organizes a biannual conference in recreational mathematics called MOVES: Mathematics Of Various Entertaining Subjects. Being a math-recreatinalist myself, I attend all of them. The last one was held in August 2023 and was devoted to the mathematics of Fiber Arts. A few years ago, I wouldn’t have believed I had something […]  ( 6 min )

A couple years ago I suggested: A quick fix in science communication: Switch from the present to the past tense. Here’s an example. A paper was published, “Māori and Pacific people in New Zealand have a higher risk of hospitalisation … Continue reading →  ( 17 min )

Igor Grossmann writes: Together with colleagues from Innsbruck, Vienna, and Waterloo, we are launching an exciting new project and we would like to invite you to participate in (and your PostDocs, PhDs and other team members): it’s a crowd analysis … Continue reading →  ( 12 min )

Math scores among American students — which had been stagnant for more than a decade — are now getting worse. Several largely overlooked reports raise alarms about how Americans’ disdain for math is a threat to national security, while the number of jobs in math occupations is quickly increasing.  ( 16 min )

Your focus seems to be on propositional knowledge but there’s also procedural or embodied knowing (e.g. that underpins skills), tacit knowing (incl. instinct & intuition), collective or distributed knowing (how we operate and negotiate with others and the world) and metacognition? Tim Fawns I got a good response on X to my last post. Tim … Continue reading Underlying Skills →  ( 6 min )

Introduction Continue reading: Creating Interactive Radar Charts in R with the ‘fmsb’ Library

Introduction Greetings, humanists, social and data scientists! Ever imagined a world where any computer with an internet browser could be your playground for programming in R? Believe it, because this is your reality! Google Colab enables you t... Continue reading: How to use R in Google Colab?

An ... Continue reading: Elliptic cyclide by inversion of a torus  ( 7 min )

Today was the first-ever Blanton–Hogg group meeting. But it was the first ever , since I missed the first two for health and travel reasons. It was great! Tardugno (NYU) showed simulations of gas disks with embedded planets. The planets affect the disk, and the disk causes the planets to interact. Daunt (NYU) showed that his method for inferring (simultaneously) the spectrum, tellurics, and radial velocities in stellar spectra all . I am stoked! Novara (NYU) showed that he has a bug in his code! But we had a good discussion inspired by that bug about surfaces of section in a real dynamics problem. Gandhi (NYU) showed us a paper with questionable claims about the CMB light passing through galaxy halos?notfor meworks  ( 14 min )

Team Ratings for Week 5 The basic method is described on my Department home page. Here are the team ratings prior to this week’s games, along with the ratings at the start of the season. Current Rating Rating at Season Start Difference New Zealand 19.21 16.32 2.90 Ireland 18.17 15.46 2.70 South Africa 17.93 16.35 […] RWC 2023 Predictions for Week 5 first appeared on Stats Chat.  ( 4 min )

Team Ratings for the Quarter-Finals The basic method is described on my Department home page. Here are the team ratings prior to this week’s games, along with the ratings at the start of the season. Current Rating Rating at Season Start Difference Wellington 12.13 8.72 3.40 Canterbury 6.95 9.44 -2.50 Waikato 4.58 3.71 0.90 Bay […] Bunnings NPC Predictions for the Quarter-Finals first appeared on Stats Chat.  ( 4 min )

Those who consume too much alcohol or other recreational drugs often make excuses. Like “I’m no worse than many others”, “I still manage to get to work most days”, or “Let’s wait til my problem gets worse, like I can no longer walk”, or “They’ll soon make a version without bad side effects”. Such folks can benefit from associates pushing them to a

An ISBA-BNP webinar on Wednesday, 4 October, at 17:00 UTC by my friend Steve McEachern: Familial inference: Tests for hypotheses on a family of centers Many scientific disciplines face a replicability crisis. While these crises have many drivers, we focus on one. Statistical hypotheses are translations of scientific hypotheses into statements about one or more […]  ( 7 min )

An ISBA-BNP webinar on Wednesday, 4 October, at 17:00 UTC by my friend Steve McEachern: Familial inference: Tests for hypotheses on a family of centers Many scientific disciplines face a replicability crisis. While these crises have many drivers, we focus on one. Statistical hypotheses are translations of scientific hypotheses into statements about one or more […]  ( 7 min )

These 14 dessert bars range from fruity and chewy to full of chocolate. Whether you want a quick weeknight dessert or you're baking for a crowd, you're sure to find a winner.  ( 14 min )

Bánh Mì Khong's (Bánh Mì Bread's) tender crumb and shatteringly crisp exterior is perfect for making bánh mì sandwiches.  ( 22 min )

NanoWrimo is coming up in November and once again I feel the pull to participate. I am not affiliated to the organisation behind this… Continue reading on The Writing Cooperative »  ( 8 min )

5 ways to use this little three-letter powerhouse to empower readers to act Continue reading on The Writing Cooperative »  ( 8 min )

Because creativity can’t be forced. But you can stimulate it Continue reading on The Writing Cooperative »  ( 8 min )

It’s fun to dream of success, but don’t get caught in a nightmare Continue reading on The Writing Cooperative »  ( 8 min )

THIS ARTICLE IS ADAPTED FROM THE SEPTEMBER 30, 2023, EDITION OF GASTRO OBSCURA’S FAVORITE THINGS NEWSLETTER. YOU CAN SIGN UP HERE. A friend recently gifted me a recipe booklet from 1941 called Bananas … How to Serve Them. Published by the Meloripe Fruit Company, it features 56 banana recipes, as well as helpful tips like how to gauge a banana’s ripeness, and how to “flute” bananas to make them more presentable when serving (use a fork to draw lines down the sides of a peeled banana, then slice crosswise into “dainty crinkle-edged rounds.” Who knew?) Many of the savory recipes in the book, like Banana Meatloaf and “Salmon Salad Tropical,” have been lost to history, for good reason. The desserts are more familiar to a modern palate—for the most part. Nestled among banana cream pies, milks…  ( 24 min )

Home to numerous museums, temples, and the oldest zoo in Japan, Ueno Park reigns supreme as one of Tokyo’s top tourist attractions. Most likely, any visitor to the city finds themselves walking in this park sooner or later, at least once during their trip. Once part of the huge temple complex of Kan’ei-ji, the park itself boasts plenty of interesting landmarks, from an abandoned train station to the face-only Great Buddha. There is another unusual attraction hiding in plain sight, where most visitors simply walk past unaware of its existence. The Suribachiyama tumulus, also referred to as the “Old Tomb on Mount Suribachi” in the description on its historical marker, sits inconspicuously along the paths in Ueno Park leading up to the zoo and the museums. Were it not for the sign, it could easily be mistaken for a regular hill, complete with simple benches on top. It is, however, a legitimate archaeological site, estimated to be around 1,500 years old. Having been severely damaged throughout its history, no excavation has officially taken place here, leaving it a bit of a mystery. It is apparent, though, that it is a keyhole-type burial mound typical of the Kofun period of Japan, and a handful of pottery sherds have been found at the site.  ( 13 min )

On a quiet hilltop in eastern Colorado, scarcely distinguishable from the plains surrounding it, lies a small granite monument. Adorned with the profile of a Native American with a feather headdress, it reads “SAND CREEK BATTLE GROUND / NOV 29&30, 1864”. However, what happened here in 1864 was hardly a battle. The name of the National Historic Site containing this monument bears a more accurate name for this event: the Sand Creek Massacre. By the 1951 Treaty of Fort Laramie, the Cheyenne and Arapahoe held most of eastern Colorado and other land in the Great Plains. With the Pikes Peak Gold Rush bringing thousands more white settlers to the territory, Colorado officials were looking for ways to get more territory from the Indigenous people. Efforts to extract more land were met with fierc…  ( 15 min )

Pulling up to Cactus Jack’s Family Fun Center on the western outskirts of Oklahoma City, it’s hard to distinguish the facility from any other semi-suburban arcade that rings cities across the country. But the unassuming exterior of the building masks a passion for competitive pinball that is matched by only a few locations across the entire southwest. Cactus Jack’s bills itself as Oklahoma’s oldest arcade, having operated in the same location since 1974. For most of its history, it was a traditional arcade, rentable for birthday parties and events, and even today most of the facility is still devoted to a standard array of now-classic arcade games and children's prizes. However, as the allure of arcades declined by the 2000s, Cactus Jack's reoriented itself around pinball. It now boasts the largest collection of modern pinball machines in the state, and one of the 10 largest public collections in the country. Today, the collection rivals those found at many of America's biggest pinball museums, although its commercial focus means it places a heavier weight on newer games and modern classics, as opposed to the vintage games found in similar locations countrywide. In 2015, the arcade became the host site of the first competitive pinball tournament ever held in Oklahoma, and it continues to host both national and regional tournaments, as well as meetings of the Oklahoma Pinball Enthusiasts Club.  ( 14 min )

In the late 19th century, the mysterious death of Zona Heaster Shue raised the perplexing question: Did she die of natural causes, or was it murder? It was true Zona's mother, Mary J. Heaster, never approved of her daughter's marriage to Erasmus Trout Shue, but did he kill her? On the fateful day of Zona's death in 1897, Trout Shue asked a neighbor to call on his wife at home. When the young man walked inside, he found Zona dead on the floor.  Curiously, Shue prevented a thorough examination of the body and helped dress her with a high collar and veil "tied in a large bow under her chin." Despite his efforts, witnesses reported that Zona's head was noticeably "loose upon the neck." She was buried with no charges filed against her husband, but Mary Heaster knew his secret—her daughter's spirit appeared to her, revealing foul play.  Upon exhumation and autopsy, Zona's broken neck and crushed windpipe provided clear evidence that she, indeed, had been murdered. Trout Shue was put on trial, and Mary Heaster's testimony of her daughter's visits from beyond the grave told the real account.  Within an hour, the jury convicted Trout Shue of first-degree murder, sentencing him to life in prison. This bizarre Greenbrier County case is the only trial in which ghostly testimony led to a murderer's conviction.  ( 13 min )

Accademia Carrara is the flagship art museum in the city of Bergamo. The more than 300 items on display consist mainly of paintings and sculptures, but there is also an outlier: the Visconti-Sforza Tarot Cards.  The original deck of cards is from the mid-15th century, and it was created by a painter by the name of Bembo Bonifacio. However, before the end of the 15th century, three cards had gone missing, and another painter, Antonio Cicognara, decided to re-produce the missing cards. This deck of tarot cards was originally produced for the Sforza family, and it is believed some human figures are actually portraits of several members of this aristocratic family.  Subsequently, the Visconti family acquired possession of the deck. These cards are a valuable testimony of what courtesans used to do to entertain themselves in their palaces, but there is more to it than this.   In fact, they also offer a glimpse into what was considered proper or fashionable at the time, and what the dwellings must have been like. At this juncture, it is important to stress that tarot cards were not used in cartomancy and divination until the 18th century, which means that these cards were used for card games—alas, the rules were not recorded. It is mind-boggling to think these cards were used in games, as it is more appropriate to think of them as miniature works of art. Within the constraints of an 87-millimeter by 176-millimeter canvas, the details are extremely intricate, and the materials used include silver and gold.  Upon close inspection, one can appreciate the careful punching work that creates beautiful geometric patterns. A complete deck of tarot cards has 78 cards: 14 cards for each of the four suits (aka Minor Arcana), and 22 symbolic cards depicting human archetypes (aka Major Arcana). At present, the deck is divided as follows: 26 cards at Accademia Carrara in Bergamo, 35 cards at the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York, and 13 cards are privately owned. Four cards from the deck are missing.  ( 14 min )

This story was originally published on The Conversation and appears here under a Creative Commons license. The word “witches” makes many Americans think of women working in league with the devil. But that hasn’t always been the face of sorcery. Most of Catholic and Protestant Europe embraced the idea of magic as a satanic craft practiced by women, and strong, independent women were kept in line through such accusations. In Orthodox Russia, however, accusers overwhelmingly blamed men for bewitching them and held different ideas of where the power of “magic” came from. Evidence about Russians’ belief in witchcraft survives in all kinds of documents from the 12th to the 18th centuries: sermons; historical chronicles and tales; stories of saints’ lives; laws and decrees; manuals of her…  ( 22 min )

Listen and subscribe on Stitcher, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and all major podcast apps. In this episode of The Atlas Obscura Podcast, we go on a journey through the depths of the ocean, meeting a different squid deity at each stop along the way. Our guide is bonafide cephalopod expert, biologist, and science educator Sarah McAnulty. Learn more: Sarah is teaching a course this fall about the creatures that live in the deep sea. It starts October 3, 2023. Use promo code CEPHALOPODCAST when you sign up to take 15 percent off. Our podcast is an audio guide to the world’s wondrous, awe-inspiring, strange places. In under 15 minutes, we’ll take you to an incredible site, and along the way you’ll meet some fascinating people and hear their stories. Join us daily, Monday through Thursday, to explore a new wonder with cofounder Dylan Thuras and a neighborhood of Atlas Obscura reporters.  ( 15 min )

Atlas Obscura’s weekly crossword comes to us from Natan Last, a writer who also helps develop policy and digital products for refugees and asylum seekers. His work can be found in The Atlantic, Los Angeles Review of Books, The New Yorker, and other publications, and he's currently working on a nonfiction book about crosswords. You can solve the puzzle below, or download it in .pdf or .puz. Note that the links in the clues will take you to Atlas Obscura pages that may contain the answer. Happy solving!  ( 12 min )

At times, the enormous BlueWalker 3 telecommunications satellite is brighter than some of the most iconic stars visible from Earth

About one in five U.S. counties are both socially vulnerable and highly exposed to natural disasters, which could “compound existing inequities,” the Department of the Treasury says in a new report

Biochemist Katalin Karikó and her colleague Drew Weissman were recently awarded a $3-million Breakthrough Prize for their work

We present the latest updates on ChatGPT, Bard and other competitors in the artificial intelligence arms race.

A new study reveals an “AI placebo effect”: the same chatbot will respond differently depending on its users’ assumptions about artificial intelligence

Whether or not UFOs exist, we need to pay attention to how they are influencing our politics and culture

Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman were awarded this year’s Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for mRNA vaccine discoveries that made highly effective COVID vaccines possible

Rapid advances in generative artificial intelligence have prompted big questions about the future of work and even human creativity. Experts have suggestions for how to manage all these unknowns

The best learning investment you’ll ever make. For one week only, get unlimited access to DataCamp for one month for just $1. Regular subscription resumes after first month. Running until October 8, 2023, online data science and AI learning platform DataCamp is offering its premium subscription for only $1. With DataCamp Premium, you ... Continue reading: Get DataCamp Premium for Just $1!  ( 8 min )

Introduction Continue reading: Horizontal Boxplots in R using the Palmer Penguins Data Set

The most used parameterization of the ordinary torus (the donut) is: ... Continue reading: The torus and the elliptic cyclide  ( 7 min )

This blog post is just a note that when you try to do a grouped summary of a date variable but some groups have all missing values, it will return Inf. This means that the summary will not show up as an NA and this can cause issues in analysis ... Continue reading: Summarising Dates with Missing Values  ( 7 min )

Diffusion models in ESGtoolkit + announcements. Continue reading: Diffusion models in ESGtoolkit + announcements

This is Jessica. Zach Lipton gave a talk at an event on human-centered AI at the University of Chicago the other day that resonated with me, in which he commented on the adoption of causal inference to solve machine learning … Continue reading →  ( 14 min )

OK, more on junk science. Sorry! But it’s been in the news lately, and people keep emailing me about it. For those of you who want some more technical statistics content, here are some recent unpublished papers to keep you … Continue reading →  ( 28 min )

Plus: A pickup truck strikes a Metro Transit bus, killing one; Prairie Island Indian Community nears completion of the tribe’s net zero carbon project; Minneapolis Farmers Market attendee stabbed; and more.  ( 6 min )

Saturday's Legacy Cannabis Cup was the first installment of the event since recreational marijuana was legalized in Minnesota, and there was a palpable excitement for the budding industry's future among the gathered entrepreneurs.  ( 26 min )

The short-term funding bill expires on Nov. 17, and there’s no guarantee lawmakers in the U.S. House and U.S. Senate will come to an agreement on how to fund the federal budget before that deadline.  ( 18 min )

How, exactly, does one define when a smell is not just bad, but "interferes with the enjoyment of life?” Lawmakers and state regulators are trying — at least in the Twin Cities metro area — to take on odor that invades everyday life.  ( 25 min )

Kyros, a platform that connects people to substance use disorder peer recovery specialists, will use the raise to expand service access.  ( 11 min )

Ecological justice solutions are not a new idea for MPS, which has a history of implementing green school initiatives. With more federal funding, we could take these initiatives to the level that reality requires.  ( 13 min )

It featured a group of 3-to-5-year-old characters, inspired by Charles Schulz’s childhood in the Twin Cities.  ( 10 min )

Support the news you rely on.  ( 5 min )

Plus: Como Park High School volleyball coach charged with criminal sexual conduct; U of M students moved into Identity Dinkytown apartment; fungal infection seen in more Minnesota dogs; and more.  ( 10 min )

Also Su Zhu, Ackman/Musk X SPARC, Lordstown and Dumb Money.  ( 2 min )

This movie was deeper and more philosophical than I was expecting.  Imagine a Buddhism that decides the AIs represent the true renunciation of desire, and thus embody the Buddhist ideal.  Globally, the AIs ally themselves with the Buddhist nations, now unified under a “Republic of New Asia” banner.  Mostly it looks like Vietnam (water buffalo), […] The post *The Creator* (movie review with spoilers) appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         Comments I thought this review was good for the discussion of what's ... by Matt In reply to PK. >a country that wouldn't exist now without ... by Derek227 In reply to Bilbo b.. This movie is getting absolutely ... by Derek22 In reply to M. But Michael Crichton's 1973 movie is great! by cthulhu Youtuber “The Critical Drinker” has a semi-positive review. ... by mikeInThe716 Plus 10 more...  ( 7 min )

1. Overview of Robert Putnam.  Interesting piece. 2. Okie-dokie. 3. And (same source) thwarted markets in everything? 4. The Joseph Walker podcast with Katalin Karikó.  Redux. 5. “Harvard ranked 248th out of the 248 schools that were ranked. Not only did Harvard rank last, but FIRE singled us out for special scorn, stating that Harvard’s score was six standard […] The post Monday assorted links appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         Comments In reply to Cancelled for wongthink. You seriously think ... by Roger Sweeny In reply to Fake Bill. Do you mean free speech is only for ... by Gridlock In reply to Bill. Yes, Harvard is an evangelical university. by Roger Sweeny In reply to RAD. “Penn is not the hero of her story” ... by Tom T. In reply to Demosthenes. Yes, this article seemed ... by y81 Plus 10 more...  ( 6 min )

It took firms decades to adjust to electricity by redesigning factories, products, and workflows to take full advantage of the new possibilities. Similarly, the benefits of work from home start to come most profoundly when expensive offices can be shrunk, employers can draw from a much larger pool of workers and workers can adjust when […] The post Work From Home Works appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         Comments In reply to superdestroyer. Data is better than anecdotes, ... by dan1111 In reply to Clay. this is widely assumed to be behind all the ... by wormbridge In reply to nf. can I ask what you do please? by wormbridge In reply to JC. great point on the end. I think I've read ... by wormbridge In reply to Felix Melior. I seem to have an amazing ability ... by Hazel Meade Plus 10 more... Related Stories The need for hospital price transparency The PayPal StableCoin Ayn Rand on the Antitrust Laws  ( 8 min )

PEPFAR is the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, started by George W. Bush in 2003. Overseen by the State Department, the program provides treatment for HIV-AIDS and derivative maladies (such as tuberculosis) through training, medical infrastructure, support for orphans and vulnerable children, and, most important, antiretroviral drugs. By some estimates, the program has saved 25 million […] The post PEPFAR has been a great achievement appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         Comments In reply to Ricardo. The brains of the Kusher family is ... by Cancelled for wongthink Sorry to rain on your parade…but PEPFAR was just Kabuki ... by Cancelled for wongthink My reaction when I see “OWS” is to expand the initialism to ... by BReed The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) under George H. W. ... by a different gladwell In reply to Ricardo. ” but what does Jared Kushner have to ... by JWatts Plus 10 more... Related Stories The need for hospital price transparency What should I ask Patrick McKenzie? States with high (low) rates of reporter mental illness  ( 7 min )

In 2015, a big team of researchers tried to redo 100 psychology studies, and about 60% failed to replicate. This finding made big waves and headlines, and it’s already been cited nearly 8,000 times. But the next time someone brings it up, ask them to name as many of the 100 studies as they can. My bet […] The post Sentences to ponder, scientific fraud edition appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         Comments In reply to Rich Berger. From the favorite news source of TC: ... by Rich Berger In reply to HB. The replication crisis is only part of the ... by kwazii In reply to joan. Shhh. Don't tell anybody about the ... by Apply_Same_to_Economists I mean, I'm not going to read the article, but the excerpted ... by Steve Winwood In reply to SB. You probably recognize that you will only ... by Apply_Same_to_Economists Plus 10 more... Related Stories A new estimate of costs from global warming Why have economically declining regions turned toward right-wing parties? Texas fact of the day, educational polarization issue  ( 7 min )

It’s Nobel Prize week, and the work behind mRNA COVID-19 vaccines has just earned the physiology or medicine prize. But this is Retraction Watch, so that’s not what this post is about. A Nobel prize-winning researcher whose publications have come under scrutiny has retracted his 10th paper for issues with the data and images.  Gregg … Continue reading Nobel Prize winner Gregg Semenza tallies tenth retraction  ( 8 min )

On Aug. 17, 2022, Nicki Tiffin received a notification that she had published a new study. The problem? She had never submitted an article to the journal in which the paper appeared.  A year later, despite efforts by Tiffin and others, the journal has not responded to retraction requests, and the article remains online. Further … Continue reading One year later, bioinformatics journal with unclear leadership yet to retract plagiarized article  ( 11 min )

The 1970s is a revered period in the canon of cinema. It is an era defined by auteurs having complete control of their artistic craft. ‘70s cinema, often cited as New Hollywood, shaped the collective consciousness of the power and role of a film director. Not only are there undeniable works of art across the […]  ( 10 min )

By focusing on causal relationships in genome regulation, a new AI method could help scientists identify new immunotherapy techniques or regenerative therapies.  ( 10 min )

Study shows users can be primed to believe certain things about an AI chatbot’s motives, which influences their interactions with the chatbot.  ( 10 min )

One thing I revel in about the English language is the huge number of loanwords it has:  French, Latin, Greek, Native American, Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Kurdish, Sanskrit, Hindi, Urdu, Bengali, Tamil, Russian, German, Spanish, Italian, Irish, Swedish, Dutch, Danish, Norwegian, Finnish, Japanese, Cantonese, Mandarin, Maori, Hebrew, Yiddish, Afrikaans, Zulu, Swahili, and so on and on […]  ( 11 min )

Dev Cheatsheets (github)📌 “A collection of code snippets and CLI guides for quick and easy reference while coding” PlayingCards.io (privacy policy) 📌 “Play any tabletop game online with friends.” The Garden of Computational Delights 📌 “Beneath the utilitarian purpose of computation, computing is also a source of delight and wonder.” S5: A Simple Standards-Based Slide Show System 📌 “...a slide show format based entirely on XHTML, CSS, and JavaScript” 100+ lesser known but useful websites 📌  ( 2 min )

After this brief follow-up to the last not so simple test, I’ll be back with some new links for ya. 😎  ( 1 min )

If you’re going to join a call to have a book removed from a school library, you should do your homework first. That means reading the book –  all 305 pages, not just the one and a half pages someone else photocopied and distributed in a letter of complaint addressed to the community. The library […]  ( 12 min )

...

For the last five years, two researchers in Wisconsin have been searching for dugouts, a type of canoe carved from a single tree trunk. What started as 11 documented canoes has now grown to 80. The boats offer a glimpse into Indigenous culture — and the environment — before Europeans arrived in North America.  ( 17 min )

This question can be asked at different levels of generality. “It is raining,” you may say; or, “The climate is warming.” You may know it is raining because you have just been outside or you have looked out the window or you have checked your weather app. You may know that the climate is warming … Continue reading How Do You Know? →  ( 6 min )

Two siblings alternate between fantasy and the real world after their father is the victim of a political conspiracy.  ( 2 min )

No content preview  ( 1 min )

The ELLIS PhD Program is now accepting applications. ELLIS PhDs are co-supervised by one ELLIS fellow/scholar/unit faculty and one ELLIS fellow/scholar/member, both based in Europe. The ELLIS initiative has the goal to foster and educate the best talent in machine learning and related research areas by pairing outstanding students with leading academic and industrial researchers […]  ( 6 min )

Any stream of financial payments can be turned into an asset, by selling a transferable right to receive that stream of payments. For example, from the stream of tax payments that each individual citizen pays to the government each year, we could create “personal tax assets” (PTAs). These are rights to have part of this stream of money diverted to you. (We need not bundle such assets with any control rights over the target taxpayer, how much they owe, or how their taxes are collected.)

And why is it so important for storytellers to get this right? Continue reading on The Writing Cooperative »  ( 8 min )

Quitting is not an option Continue reading on The Writing Cooperative »  ( 8 min )

Henry Farrell and Cosma Shalizi, "Behold the AI Shoggoth", The Economist 6/21/2023 ("The academics argue that large language models have much older cousins in markets and bureaucracies"): An internet meme keeps on turning up in debates about the large language models (LLMS) that power services such OpenAI’s ChatGPT and the newest version of Microsoft’s Bing […]  ( 9 min )

The research suggests that Oxford’s student population was by far the most lethally violent social or professional group in any of the three cities. The team behind the Medieval Murder Maps – a digital resource that plots crime scenes based on translated investigations from 700-year-old coroners’ inquests – estimate the per capita homicide rate in Oxford to have […] The post Oxford fact of the day, medieval murder edition appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         Comments In reply to Reading the paper helps,. It's like the women are ... by Equestrian In reply to mkt42. Good question. In terms of push factors, ... by M In reply to Equestrian. I was going to say the same thing. by jjjackson In reply to Cherry-Pickers-R-Us. Why ignore suicide stats, ... by rsm In reply to mkt42. So we just kill ourselves now, in this ... by rsm Plus 10 more...  ( 7 min )

1. NSF partners with the Institute for Progress to test new mechanisms for funding research and innovation. 2. Two-minute AI-generated podcast about the jazz music of Sun Ra.  From Trellis. 3. Gideon Lewis-Kraus on scientific misconduct (New Yorker).  Excellent piece. 4. “State partisanship and COVID vaccination rates are strongly predictive of COVID death rates even […] The post Sunday assorted links appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         Comments In reply to MikeP. Father of many kids here. Their lives ... by Pillow Lasers In reply to JFA. So are we just looking at another noise ... by rsm In reply to Charlie Munger: The Sequel. Morning or afternoon ... by Reason Closing in on three years of discussion and debate and COVID-19 ... by Stan Greer In reply to Skeptical American. Nate Silver's political views ... by SXS Plus 10 more...  ( 6 min )

Okay this is sick pic.twitter.com/IUv29cLIeA — Daniel (@growing_daniel) September 28, 2023 The post Meta AI plus glasses appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         Comments In reply to Phil C.. 1 & 2, yes. 3 & 4 not really; it ... by Good comment In reply to Pipsterate. I have face recognition blindness – ... by Defektor In reply to blue jay. A lot of people – like the vast ... by Sean In reply to Derek228. I wouldn’t worry. Chemtrails, ... by Joe Bush In reply to Phil C.. The not-so-unstoppable force of ... by dystopian replicant love triangle Plus 10 more... Related Stories The Productivity of Online Education Increases *Building God: Demystifying AI for Decision Makers* The best sentence I read today (so far)  ( 6 min )

The paper, by David J. Winter and Manuela Kiehl, is titled “Long-term Macroeconomic Effects of Shifting Temperature Anomaly Distributions.”  I’ve posted a few papers showing results like “5 to 10 percent of global gdp by 2100” (try here and here), and I promised I would pass along further and different estimates.  Here is the abstract: […] The post A new estimate of costs from global warming appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         Comments In reply to Error_Spotting. I never said anything against ... by No In reply to AR6. Hmmm. On that page you find: “Mean air ... by Error_Spotting In reply to schmedly amongst academics. Addendum, the fish ... by schmedly amongst academics In reply to Error_Spotting. AR6 12.5.2 Emergence of Climatic ... by AR6 In reply to Error_Spotting. Read the pages and IPCC report ... by Error_Spotting Plus 10 more... Related Stories Why have economically declining regions turned toward right-wing parties? Texas fact of the day, educational polarization issue *Selective Breeding and the Birth of Philosophy*  ( 7 min )

What is a 2-rig, and why is the free 2-rig on one object the category of Schur functors?  ( 11 min )

What is a 2-rig, and why is the free 2-rig on one object the category of Schur functors?  ( 11 min )

Paul Alper points to this fun news article by Andrew Van Dam, who runs the “Department of Data” column for the Washington Post. Van Dam writes: According to our analysis of more than 110,000 responses to the National Health Interview … Continue reading →  ( 13 min )

Dan Klein points us to this event announced by Abel Brodeur and Anna Dreber: On October 26th 2023 we will organize the Stockholm’s Replication Game at the Stockholm School of Economics, Sweden. Participants will be matched with other researchers working … Continue reading →  ( 9 min )

A battery-free GPS may change the game for tracking elusive animals

Scientists are now growing mycelium, the fungal root network, into fire-retardant sheets to provide a safer, nontoxic way to protect buildings

A key genetic mutation—harmful in humans—may have opened the sky to bats

Scientists accidentally discover metals that mend themselves without human intervention

Tilapia skin’s collagen can aid in healing burns, fixing heart valves, and more—and now it can be used for repairing corneas

Mammals munching on dinosaurs in China, Greenland’s melted past, coral catastrophe in Florida, and much more in this month’s Quick Hits

Letters to the editors for the May 2023 issue of Scientific American

A molecular additive allows different kinds of plastic to be recycled together

An age-old remedy that was prescribed by Hippocrates may be a cheap alternative to antibiotics for those with chronic wounds

Researchers have created the first nerve-controlled prosthetic hand that can be used in daily life

Why we’re seduced by nature’s toxins, horror stories for winter solstice, and more books out this month

Earth as a zoo; sunburned eyes

Male hellbender salamanders normally tend their young, but lately they’ve been devouring them instead

A special package explores problems and solutions to the geography of injustice

Federal investment in carbon capture could help fight climate change, but this technology is facing fierce opposition

In case you didn’t get the memo, the presidents of the American Anthropological Association (AAA) and the Canadian Anthropology Society (CASCA) want you to stop talking about sex already.  Or at least they want anthropologists to stop.  Ellie Kincaid reported last week for Retraction Watch that a panel presentation entitled “Let’s Talk About Sex, Baby: … Continue reading How a canceled panel on sex plays into censorship by the right: A guest post  ( 12 min )

Small typo in exercise 8.4.D. A space missing between "Suppose" and "\pi".  ( 14 min )

The other week, I found an interesting looking library on GitHub. ada-url, a Continue reading: adaR: An accurate, fast and WHATWG-compliant URL parser  ( 9 min )

I hope you’ll forgive me John but I’m using your ‘simple test’ post to see if this simple test provides the desired result. Thanks!  ( 1 min )

Dude’s got an eye for beauty! 😎 jamie's epic web zone 📌 Blog•Feistel•Party thecozy.cat ⇾ Cyuucat  ( 1 min )

A common task in analysis is to obtain bounds on sums or integrals where is some simple region (such as an interval) in one or more dimensions, and is an explicit (and elementary) non-negative expression involving one or more variables (such as or , and possibly also some additional parameters. Often, one would be content […]  ( 28 min )

A common task in analysis is to obtain bounds on sums or integrals where is some simple region (such as an interval) in one or more dimensions, and is an explicit (and elementary) non-negative expression involving one or more variables (such as or , and possibly also some additional parameters. Often, one would be content […]  ( 28 min )

Trying to spread the word: The at Rice University in Houston, Texas invites applications for two tenure-track faculty positions, one experimental and one theoretical, in the area of quantum science using atomic, molecular, or optical methods. This encompasses quantum information processing, quantum sensing, quantum networks, quantum transduction, quantum many-body physics, and quantum simulation conducted on a variety of platforms. The ideal candidates will intellectually connect AMO physics to topics in condensed matter and quantum information theory. In both searches, we seek outstanding scientists whose research will complement and extend existing quantum activities within the Department and across the University. In addition to developing an independent and vigorous research program, …  ( 10 min )

Today I got invited to be on a panel discussion (hosted by Soledad Villar of JHU) with Alberto Bietti (Flatiron) about the theory and practice of machine learning. It was great! We talked about why ML works for scientific applications, and Bietti said something (obvious maybe) that I loved: Maybe ML only works because of properties of the . That is, maybe when we are analyzing ML methods we are looking in the wrong place, and we should be analyizing the data to which they are successfully applied? I made fun of interpretation in ML, and that led to interesting comments from both Bietti and the audience. Several audience members suggested taking something more like a approach to interpretation: How does the method work under interventions or in conditional situations? That's interesting; it isn't what a physicist would consider interpetation, but it might be sufficient in many cases.datacausal  ( 14 min )

Visit the post for more.  ( 6 min )

Visit the post for more.  ( 6 min )

Solid grounds for your castle of words. Continue reading on The Writing Cooperative »  ( 8 min )

The all-important basics to avoid dying on the slush pile Continue reading on The Writing Cooperative »  ( 8 min )

If you can't make up your mind what to do about something, then in French you would say "je suis partagé":  I'm torn or divided over it.  You can't decide what to do about it.  You can't make up your mind whether to be pleased or angry with something.  But the verb "partager" means "to […]  ( 9 min )

1. Rating the Polish cities. 2. New jobs at Open Philanthropy. 3. Paul Krugman on interest rates (NYT).  I am not persuaded, but there is a coherent argument here and this is currently one of the most important questions. 4. New results on surging business formation during the pandemic. 5. Lex Fridman and Mark Zuckerberg […] The post Saturday assorted links appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         Comments In reply to Colin C. The fed needs to “say no”…… by paddy “5. Lex Fridman and Mark Zuckerberg avatar chat.” Pretty ... by mkt42 In reply to Vik. Yesterday's NY Fed reverse Repo sale was ... by paddy In reply to Phil S.. Poe's Law strikes again, and the ... by y81 In reply to Cancelled for wongthink. You're talking about ... by Anonymous Plus 10 more...  ( 6 min )

Greater price transparency doesn’t have to cost much money upfront, as most of what is required is attention. A critical majority of Americans — including doctors, patients, politicians, media and hospital board members — needs to insist on this outcome. And I do mean insist. Just as, at some point, a critical mass of Americans demanded […] The post The need for hospital price transparency appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         Comments In reply to Kaleberg. there are about as many un-insured ... by sisterogersintersectionalneighborhoodfilmreviews In reply to Dino the Isaurian. People who do check for price ... by floccina In reply to JWatts. The MDs don't know because for most of ... by floccina In reply to JWatts. Did you ask them how much it would cost ... by somaguy “Who will be the Greta Thunberg of price transparency?” ... by dazed Plus 10 more... Related Stories The PayPal StableCoin Ayn Rand on the Antitrust Laws They are solving for the equilibrium  ( 7 min )

PayPal customers can now transact in PayPal USD, a crypto stablecoin tied to the dollar. So which type of PayPal dollar, regular or crypto, is safer to hold? Surprisingly, the crypto dollar is backed by safer assets, gives you better rights in the event of a bankruptcy and is more transparent. The reason is not […] The post The PayPal StableCoin appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         Comments In reply to Bob. If you read computer security blogs. Rule #1 ... by Kaleberg In reply to OldCurmudgeon. And at the same time, you have to ... by Bob “I recently enlisted one of personal chargeback recovery ... by Williams smith Does the SEC consider PayPal USD to be a currency or security? ... by Terry In reply to Hadur. That sounds like an amazing 3D printer. ... by Hi Plus 10 more... Related Stories Ayn Rand on the Antitrust Laws Patents, Intellectual Property and the Rise of the Rent Seeking Society They are solving for the equilibrium  ( 8 min )

Have you ever visited a bookshop and noticed that a cover caught your attention in just the right way?  But then you say “Nah, I don’t want to read a book right now on that topic.”  But then you crack open the book and read a short amount and the quality of the work catches […] The post *Winnie and Nelson: Portrait of a Marriage* appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         Comments In reply to Kevin. His “A Man of Good Hope” was also ... by a-non In reply to peri. You do not defend your dignity with your ... by mdap > I learned just how much it was the earlier white South ... by mdap In reply to mkt42. I didn’t know the Chinese did humor, ... by peri In reply to Calvin Hobbes. Yeah, and for those who don't know ... by Whatever Plus 10 more... Related Stories From my email, I will read this book Patents, Intellectual Property and the Rise of the Rent Seeking Society *Building God: Demystifying AI for Decision Makers*  ( 7 min )

Thrillers come in many shapes and sizes, ranging from films like Shadow of a Doubt to The Silence of the Lambs. Thrillers are interchangeable, sometimes dipping their toes in other genres such as action, horror, mystery, fantasy and western. But one thing any great thriller should have, is the audience’s attention. An effective thriller needs […]  ( 10 min )

* * * —What’s the best way to get a math tutor?—An add! * * * —Why was the equal sign so humble?—Because she knew she wasn’t greater than or less than anyone else. * * * —Where do mathematicians go on vacation?—Times Square. * * * —Why do cheapskates make good math teachers?—Because they […]  ( 5 min )

Reading this mini-obituary of the great third baseman reminds me of a passage from Earl Weaver’s autobiography. It has a great passage . . . I don’t remember the exact words, but it’s relating some important game where Brooks Robinson … Continue reading →  ( 19 min )

Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia's capital city, is a sprawling metropolis in the country's north-central region. Ulaanbaatar is home to all manner of housing, from the traditional felt tents known as ger to little log cabins in the hills and valleys. It's here that visitors can also find Dambadarjaa Monastery, one of the country's three main Khalkha Buddhist monasteries. The monastery here was established in the 1700s in a quiet northwestern section of Ulaanbaatar. The remains of a Buddhist spiritual leader, the Second Khalkha Jetsundampa, are interred here. Although Dambadarjaa is one of Ulaanbaatar's main monasteries, it is not as well known or visited as the capital's other monasteries. The monastery was ransacked in the 1930s during the Stalinist purges. Subsequently, new temples were built, and the newest temples are bright and colorful. While the older temples have fallen into disrepair, the newer ones beg to be visited. Around 50 monks live here and may unlock one of the temple doors for visitors. With a little renovation work, this could become a tourist attraction, but currently, the site dwells in obscurity.  ( 13 min )

Hey guys, welcome back to my R-tips newsletter. In today’s R-tip, I’m sharing the top 9 R packages that I use almost every day… You’re getting the cheat code to learning these R packages. Plus, I’m sharing a 200 lines of R code that shows how you can ... Continue reading: Top 9 R packages (that every Data Scientist must know)  ( 11 min )

The United Nations President of the General Assembly’s High-Level Panel on the development of a Multidimensional Vulnerability Index have (September 2023) released an Advanced Unedited Version of their Final Report, and along with it the scores on that... Continue reading: The UN’s proposed Multidimensional Vulnerability Index by @ellis2013nz  ( 8 min )

A couple of months ago I read a Continue reading: Creating typewriter-styled maps in {ggplot2}  ( 10 min )

We only remember a fraction of our dreams, and even those slip away if we don’t try to remember them—here’s why

We only remember a fraction of our dreams, and even those slip away if we don’t try to remember them—here’s why

A pediatric oncologist is racing against time to send scores of sick children out of Ukraine for medical aid.

Would you consider a donation to support Weekend Reads, and our daily work? The week at Retraction Watch featured: We also added The Retraction Watch Mass Resignations List. Our list of retracted or withdrawn COVID-19 papers is up to well over 350. There are more than 43,000 retractions in The Retraction Watch Database — which is now part of Crossref. … Continue reading Weekend reads: ‘The band of debunkers’; a superconductor retraction request; ‘the banality of bad-faith science’  ( 8 min )

Self-guidance, or simply guidance, is fundamental to systems for image generation including both diffusion-based image generators, such as the well known DALLE generator, and autoregressive image generators such as CM3leon. A technical definition of guidance is given below. While Guidance … Continue reading →  ( 8 min )

A fascinating experiment run (!) by researchers from Lyon and Torino, testing the impact of different pacer formations on the air drag of a specific runner, and leading to a predicted 4¼mn gain on a marathon for the optimal configuration. Inspired by (and in agreement with) the Nike Breaking2 and INEOS1:59 Challenge attempts. Of course, […]  ( 6 min )

Record-breaking rains caused major flash flooding in New York City, reminiscent of Hurricane Ida and a sign of what climate change will increasingly bring

A government shutdown would disrupt biomedical research and clinical trials as federal experimental facilities shuttered

EPA rules on clean cars, power plants and methane could face delays if there is a federal government shutdown because of budget turmoil in Congress

Will a possible breakthrough for room-temperature superconducting materials hold up to scrutiny?

After eight years maturing in a burrow, male tarantulas venture out to mate, then die a cruel death

Recognizing that interests are malleable and can be developed can make us more resilient, open and creative

In Who Wrote This? linguist Naomi S. Baron discusses how artificial intelligence threatens our ability to express ourselves

For decades industry has claimed that curbing pollution costs too much, but the reality has proven otherwise. Here we go again, this time on power plant carbon emissions

An astronomy festival in Italy opted to make all of its events and workshops multisensory. They wanted to see whether sound, touch and smell can, like sight, transmit the wonders of the cosmos.

This annular solar eclipse will only reveal its full glory to a select few, but onlookers across much of the Western Hemisphere can catch a partial glimpse of the dazzling phenomenon

A Step-by-Step Guide to Understanding and Implementing Synthetic Data Generation Techniques with ChatGPT and Supporting Tools Continue reading on The Writing Cooperative »  ( 8 min )

On playing it too safe Continue reading on The Writing Cooperative »  ( 8 min )

Your story’s first impression makes or breaks the reader’s interest Continue reading on The Writing Cooperative »  ( 8 min )

The news is flooded with stories about Hui Ka Yan 许家印 (MSM Xǔ Jiāyìn), one of China's wealthiest individuals, Chairman and Party Committee secretary of Evergrande Group, the mega real estate corporation that is currently going belly up, being arrested on suspicion of "illegal crimes".  That expression sounded so strange that I had to find […]  ( 8 min )

Several people have sent me pointers to the linguistically-themed 9/27/2023 NYT crossword puzzle. For some discussion by Sam Corbin, see "Talk, Talk, Talk", NYT 9/26/2023 ("Scott Koenig puts silly thoughts to bed with a clever crossword"), which includes a quotation from the puzzle's author: I first learned about Professor Chomsky as an undergraduate linguistics minor. […]  ( 12 min )

By the late 1930s, the question was no longer whether a Second World War would break out, but when—and who would be drawn into it. Whatever was going to happen in Europe or Asia, the United States should stay out: This was the opinion of a large segment of the American public, led by “America First” celebrities like Charles Lindbergh. The United States was large and self-sufficient enough to keep minding its own business, the isolationists argued. Why spend blood and treasure on wars in faraway places that did not concern America? This remarkable cartographic artifact illustrates one of the more far-fetched reasons for staying out of the coming World War: should America end up on the losing side, that could result in the dismemberment of the United States, à la Poland in previous centu…  ( 21 min )

Some places on this Earth are intangible, existing more in our minds than in our eyesight. Whether it’s an invisible border between countries, a lake no one is allowed to see, a metaphorical post office whose messages disappeared into a tree, or buildings left abandoned to memories that are no more, sometimes what matters are the parts you don’t see. From Kenya to Russia, host Dylan Thuras takes listeners to underappreciated places that, with time, have grown beyond what they first appeared to be. In these four episodes, we revisit some of our favorite podcasts where the stories are bigger than the views. The 49th Parallel The longest undefended national border on Earth was defined before the use of GPS, using compasses, math, and the stars. Hear about the town that helped establish the separation between the U.S. and Canada. Lake Karachay If you stood on the shore of this lake for just one hour, you would die. Hear more about the lake on a nuclear dumping site in Russia that inspired some macabre artists—even though they were never allowed to see Lake Karachay. The Dedan Kimathi Post Office Tree A tree in Kenya was used to deliver secret messages during the country’s fight for independence from Great Britain. Hear how one writer searched for the tree and the messages that still might be there. Secret Places with Ashley Ray A comedian and podcaster proclaims a love letter to the unloved places of her childhood hometown. Hear about the abandoned and secret places of an underappreciated midwestern city.  ( 14 min )

A gem, hidden on the slopes of Monte Barbeston. The area is characterized by ancient type rock with special properties known since ancient times. On the path between Alpe Valmeriana (Pontey) and Bellecombe (Châtillon), a separate track has been built to go over this peculiar place. In the past, it was also called the Strada del Sole ("Road of the Sun"). It was scattered with splendid remains of ancient circular stones. Some thought they were resembling solar disks. The "disks" are nowadays all around the variation on the path. This site has been of historical interest for centuries, from antiquity to the Middle Ages. It is a short but steep hike to the first bits of the first wheels or "disks", pacing is important. The path leads up to a high cave, Grotta Alta, where scratches cover the …  ( 14 min )

Surrounded by green mountain ranges, Yamanashi Prefecture is home to sites of ancient worship, most notably shrines dedicated to Mount Fuji. There is also a folk belief unique to Yamanashi, which many Japanese folklorists consider an enigma: Maruishi-gami, or “spherical stone gods.” Names and natures do agree, as the Maruishi-gami is just what it’s called—a spherical stone. But are they natural or artificial? Hard to tell, it seems. How does one worship them? Depends on whom you ask. They appear to be a sort of dōso-jin, the roadside deity that offers protection to a traveler, but that’s not always the case. Likely a remnant of primitive animism surviving into modern local culture, few locals are concerned about the origin of their stone gods, only paying them the respect that they deserve. As such, academic research is severely lacking on this subject and there remains a lot to be deciphered. Though no survey has been done, it is estimated that there are over 700 Maruishi-gami across the prefecture, a majority of them found in Yamanashi City. The largest of its kind is located in the Nanoka-Ichina neighborhood, a boulder seated on the throne of smaller rocks. Locally beloved, it remains in good care.  ( 13 min )

With 500 taxidermied birds, jail cells from the 1800s, and a mysterious mannequin that’s been known to appear in the clock tower window (not an official exhibit, but a bonus), the Whatcom Museum in Bellingham, Washington, is a must-see. The museum spans three buildings: At the Lightcatcher, take in fine art and traveling exhibits, indigenous cultural displays, and bring children to the Family Interactive Gallery. In Old City Hall, wander the John M. Edson Hall of Birds and listen to their unique calls, learn about local Pacific Northwest history (can you spot the hidden Bigfoot?), or walk inside a 19th-century padded cell in the basement’s old city jail and read the prisoners' carvings preserved in the walls. And if that’s not enough, make an appointment with a local historian at the Syre Education Center to examine the museum’s priceless photo archives. (Ken Burns has.) With 200,000 items in its care, the museum's collections are a little like grandma's attic—and you never know what new and surprising items will be on display. But the Whatcom Museum is also a Smithsonian Affiliate, hosting masterpieces from around the country. From the weird to the wonderful, it has something for everyone.  ( 14 min )

Located inside South Germantown Recreational Park, this museum boasts a broad and diverse collection of dairy farm-related memorabilia, interesting exhibits, and even interactive model milking cows to educate and entertain visitors. Located on what was once a 350-acre farm, the King Barn Dairy MOOseum is housed in a cement block, 72-stanchion dairy barn that dates back to 1930. It was built by James and Macie King after 13 of the original buildings they had purchased in 1913 had been destroyed by a tragic fire in 1926. The King Family managed the barn for over 30 years. After James King died in 1958, Macie and their son ran the business for two more years before selling the family business. The farm was purchased some years later by the Maryland National Capital Park and Planning Commission, and with support from corporate and individual donors, the land was developed into the South Germantown Recreational Park and Maryland Soccerplex. Though the barn had deteriorated over the years, it was preserved due to its solid construction and augmented with replicas of the original silos. The MOOseum welcomed its first visitors in June 2010, followed by a ribbon-cutting ceremony and official opening on October 23, 2010. The MOOseum includes exhibits that will interest visitors of all ages, including two model cows on which visitors can try out their milking technique. Other exhibits include various milk bottles, a collection of glass cow figurines, a database of all known dairy farms that have existed in Montgomery County, Maryland. There are also a craft room and play room to pique the interest of younger visitors. The docents are extremely friendly and knowledgeable on all aspects of dairy farming, and can also point out one particularly old tree that has been around since before the King Family bought the farm.  ( 14 min )

Select any day in the life of Étienne-Gaspard Robertson (1763-1837) and you might find the Liège-born artist and scientist conducting experiments in electricity, floating through the sky in a hot air balloon, or conjuring demons and the ghosts of French luminaries such as Marat and Rousseau. But it's these necromantic arts that most distinguish his towering tomb in Cimitière du Père Lachaise. Robertson spent his young adulthood in Paris during the height of the Terror. He was a talented painter from an early age, and made a living through small painting commissions while attending lectures on the burgeoning science of electricity. A tutoring post in a wealthy household enabled him to learn mathematics and physics from his benefactor's educated brother, further advancing his intellectual …  ( 15 min )

“Slovenia has a strong connection with beekeeping,” says Peter Kozmus, one of the country’s—and the world’s—leading experts on bees. “Historically, every village had at least one beekeeper who produced honey for himself, his relatives, and neighbors.” This tradition continues today, with approximately one in every 200 Slovenians keeping and tending to bee colonies. Kozmus has been a beekeeper since he was 14 years old. Today, he runs a honey farm in Pilštanj in eastern Slovenia, where he tends to more than 100 bee colonies. He also heads the breeding program for the 8,000-member Slovenian Beekeepers’ Association, a nearly 150-year-old education, research, and training organization. Drive through the verdant countryside, and you’ll notice hobbit-sized huts, similar in appearance to gard…  ( 20 min )

The now-faded mining town of Butte, Montana, was once known as the “Richest Hill on Earth.” The copper mining industry enticed tens of thousands of people to Butte to work under harsh conditions, including many immigrants from around the world. Thousands of Chinese workers moved to Butte beginning in 1868, establishing a thriving business district in the world’s largest mining camp, all while facing increased hostility and distrust. While Butte remains the home of the oldest continuously operating Chinese restaurant, little of this history otherwise remains. The Mai Wah Society was established to preserve the memory of Butte’s Chinatown, and the Society then founded the Mai Wah Museum to house its artifacts and tell its story. The museum comprises two buildings in Butte’s Uptown: the e…  ( 14 min )

Wonder is everywhere. That’s why, every other week, Atlas Obscura drags you down some of the rabbit holes we encounter as we search for our unusual stories. We highlight surprising finds, great writing, and inspiring stories from some of our favorite publications. Why Was Abraham Lincoln’s Bowtie Always Crooked? by Harry R. Rubenstein, National Museum of American History In many of his most iconic images, President Abraham Lincoln’s bowtie is askew. Staff at the National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C., wanted to know why. Was he bad at tying it? Were those around him too intimidated to straighten it? The answer, the museum discovered, was much more straightforward: It was stylish to be slightly off-kilter. The Sea Eagles That Returned to Mull by Emma Marris, Hak…  ( 18 min )

When it comes to mashed potatoes, not all spuds are created equal. Our guide tells you the best potatoes to use depending on the type of mashed potatoes you're planning to make.  ( 13 min )

We tested seven nut milk makers by making almond milk, cashew milk, and oat milk to find the model that made the smoothest, creamiest non-dairy milk.  ( 22 min )

Pickles hold significant cultural weight in Türkiye; this recipe features a tangy and crunchy medley of cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, bell peppers, lemon, garlic, dill, and, most importantly, is a tribute to the author's family and heritage.  ( 22 min )

We used our years of experience and extensive equipment reviews to pick out the best early Amazon Prime Big Deal Days sales.  ( 14 min )

Why is the status quo so risky? Individuals and foreign countries may dump U.S. treasury bills and bonds on the market because of a loss in confidence. That would make interest rates spike and could create a major economic collapse.  ( 14 min )

Plus: September 2023 poised to tie hottest in Minnesota history; police investigate “safety threat” made on social media involving Breck School; remembering acclaimed Minneapolis painter Mike Lynch; and more.  ( 9 min )

While there’s a body of research on how substances affect brain development, researchers say there has been no comprehensive study looking at early years of life over a long period of time.  ( 17 min )

Despite some troubling data around safety and vehicle trends, good things happening are on the ground and with new technology.  ( 18 min )

The law in fact tells retailers they cannot serve a THC beverage to a customer who appears intoxicated or has drunk alcohol within five hours, but it doesn’t take effect until 2025.  ( 15 min )

Right now, drought is the one consistent condition along the length of the river. The Mississippi has reached near-historic lows for the second year in a row, which is slowing down shipping and driving up costs for everyone from barge companies to grain elevators.  ( 19 min )

With a shutdown looming, Washington is abuzz with talk of a Freedom Caucus attempt to replace Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.  ( 19 min )

For many Americans, schoolyards are the public open spaces nearest home. America’s public schools sit on 2 million acres of land.  ( 11 min )

Plus: 15,000 COVID deaths reported in Minnesota; lawsuit alleges Hastings Creamery owes $800K to dairy farm; WIC will continue to run in Minnesota in case of federal government shutdown; and more.  ( 6 min )

A Roman statesman awaiting execution is visited by the personification of philosophy.  ( 4 min )

“Today, a column of tanks or a column of advancing troops can be discovered in three to five minutes and hit in another three minutes. The survivability on the move is no more than 10 minutes,” said Maj. Gen. Vadym Skibitsky, the deputy commander of Ukraine’s HUR military intelligence service. “Surprises have become very difficult […] The post The new warfare? appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         Comments The biggest lesson of this war was that traditional ... by Fazal Majid In reply to Sean. [music plays] bumm bummm, bum bum bum bumm by George Oh-Well In reply to asdf. Idk about anything being so obvious. We ... by George Oh-Well In reply to Sure. Slow drones might stand a chance against a ... by Lord Action In reply to Oldcurmudgeon. The US started a war & ran out of ... by carlospln Plus 10 more... Related Stories They are solving for the equilibrium What should I ask Patrick McKenzie? From my email (on single-parent families)  ( 7 min )

1. On the need for German supply-side reforms. 2. BAP on Argentina. 3. LLMs are a new kind of operating system (duh). 4. A chain of comments on Amazon. 5. “Sweden is considering using its military to help police in the battle against gang crime, following a sharp increase in deadly shootings and bomb attacks […] The post Friday assorted links appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         Comments In reply to M. Europe aspires to be rich like the USA and ... by bazza In reply to M. Cheeky. by bazza In reply to Anti-Gnostic. “In sum, democracy is killing ... by bazza In reply to M. And there will be no externalities. by Reason In reply to M. During an election year? Ha. They will ... by Reason Plus 10 more...  ( 6 min )

Here is Ayn Rand on the antitrust laws: Under the Antitrust laws, a man becomes a criminal from the moment he goes into business, no matter what he does. For instance, if he charges prices which some bureaucrats judge as too high, he can be prosecuted for monopoly or for a successful “intent to monopolize”; […] The post Ayn Rand on the Antitrust Laws appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         Comments In reply to WCR. Shouldn't small businesses and low-income ... by Your Husband's Cane In reply to Slocum. Not really, I was asking Alex to do it ... by Bad faith much Alex? In reply to blue jay. You are denying they use MFN clauses? ... by Bad faith much Alex? In reply to Rahul. Ok, my company… Nile… is below your ... by aaron They have. Hopefully higher education is next. ... by enghey Plus 10 more... Related Stories Patents, Intellectual Property and the Rise of the Rent Seeking Society They are solving for the equilibrium Tail risk in production networks  ( 7 min )

Here are the paper highlights: Women in same-sex couples commute longer to their workplace and work more hours than women in different-sex couples. Men in same-sex couples instead exhibit shorter commutes and work fewer hours than men in different-sex couples. These disparities are larger among married couples with children. Within-couple gaps in commuting time are also significantly smaller in same-sex couples. These differences […] The post Women in same-sex couples commute longer than women in different-sex couples appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         Comments In reply to Climacus. How could they conclude otherwise and ... by JK Brown In reply to Climacus. Haven't ready the study, but my first ... by sierra In reply to Luka. Why do seculars get married at all? I know ... by Student In reply to M. Commute time would edge it for men I reckon, ... by M In reply to TMC. OECD reckons for the US it is higher for ... by M Plus 10 more...  ( 6 min )

That is the first sentence of their abstract, here is the rest: To explain this puzzling phenomenon, we develop a theory linking internal migration, localized social institutions (e.g., family and friend networks), and voters’ preferences for social insurance. We start with the observation that social ties provide insurance against adverse life events, such as job […] The post Why have economically declining regions turned toward right-wing parties? appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         Comments In reply to Hm. it's mostly coming from China, not Mexico. ... by Hazel Meade In reply to EdR. Here's the thing though. Is it really a wise ... by Hazel Meade In reply to stubydoo. Well actually.. yes. According to this ... by JSK In reply to MCO3. Ous sophisticates are very sophisticated ... by EdR In reply to Bill Allen. My concern about California is that ... by TWBC Plus 10 more... Related Stories Texas fact of the day, educational polarization issue *Selective Breeding and the Birth of Philosophy* The Rise of and Demand for Identity-Oriented Media Coverage  ( 7 min )

Science and scholarship are global. If you want to find out the truth about the universe, you’ll have to employ the people best at figuring out that truth, regardless of where they come from. Research shuffles people around, driving them together to collaborate and apart to share their expertise. (If you don’t care about figuring […]  ( 12 min )

In campus talk, Daron Acemoglu offers vision of “machine usefulness,” rather than autonomous “intelligence,” to help workers and spread prosperity.  ( 11 min )

The prior Paul Campos posted something on the ages of the expected major-party candidates for next year’s presidential election: Joe Biden is old. Donald Trump is also old. A legitimate concern about old people in important positions is that they … Continue reading →  ( 28 min )

The tradition they now represent has centered its chief inquiries around the two humble questions, “What do you mean?” and “How do you know?” Herbert Feigl, “Logical Empiricism” Christian Frankel sent me this quote the other day knowing it would remind me of Wayne Booth’s mythical Oxford tutorials. As a statement of the underlying attitude … Continue reading Two Humble Questions →  ( 5 min )

You decided you want to build a Shiny dashboard to bring your data to a specific set of users. In your mind, this dashboard will be a crucial tool to help them solve their problems. However, you are afraid that it might be left unused. How can you build a ... Continue reading: User-Centric Dashboards: 9 Best Practices for Effective Shiny Dashboards

Introduction Continue reading: Plotting Decision Trees in R with rpart and rpart.plot  ( 7 min )

Introduction Continue reading: Reveal the stories behind those Likert-type data  ( 11 min )

Now for something completely different than our usual programming: today I’m Continue reading: ZSA Voyager review  ( 24 min )

I’ve been attending posit::conf since 2019 (when it was still called rstudio::conf), and this year was no different. I really like the keynotes, talks, the community, meeting like minded data science, and R/Python enthusiasts. In this blog post we’l... Continue reading: Insights from Posit::conf(2023)  ( 9 min )

Straight from my sticky note, three functions that I like a lot, despite their not being new at all… But maybe new to some of you? Continue reading: 3 R functions that I enjoy  ( 6 min )

Intro Intro Continue reading: Mastering the Many Models Approach  ( 63 min )

In “Explaining Life Through Evolution,” Prosanta Chakrabarty invokes the legacy of Charles Darwin’s to explain the fundamentals of evolutionary theory and its vital role in the history of science, and why its central ideas are more important to understand today than at any point in our history.  ( 14 min )

No content preview  ( 1 min )

There’s only two weeks left to go until Shiny in Production 2023! The events team are hard at work getting things ready for the day, and we wanted to take this opportunity to say a huge than... Continue reading: Shiny in Production: Sponsors  ( 6 min )

Recently, I was tasked with setting up telemetry for various demo applications here at Appsilon and building a dashboard to monitor the generated telemetry data. Being a performance enthusiast, I aimed for optimal performance, including fast database writes and quick retrieval of aggregated data. In this blog post, I will ... Continue reading: Making The Most Out of {shiny.telemetry} Using PostgreSQL & Timescale

What if you could 100X your coding productivity? Well you can with ChatGPT. One of the areas I’m most excited about is speeding up the development process of R Shiny web apps. And in this tutorial I’m going to show you how I built an app in 10 minutes... Continue reading: ChatGPT: Made this Shiny App in 10 Minutes  ( 9 min )

Join our workshop on Network Analysis with R, which is a part of our workshops for Ukraine series!  Here’s some more info:  Title: Network Analysis with R Date: Thursday, October 26th, 18:00 – 20:00 CEST (Rome, Berlin, Paris timezone) Speaker: David Schoch is the team lead for “Transparent Social Analytics” in the ... Continue reading: Network Analysis with R workshop  ( 7 min )

Introduction Continue reading: How to Reorder Boxplots in R: A Comprehensive Guide  ( 8 min )

The 9th episode of the 2nd Season of Ted Lasso is an episode called “Beard After Hours” which I found to be a pretty bad episode on a pretty good show. I wondered whether others found this to be an unexpectedly bad episode of TV or if it was just ... Continue reading: The Most Unexpectedly Good and Bad TV Episodes

The present script can be used to pre-process data from a frequency list of the Norwegian as Web Corpus (NoWaC). Continue reading: Preprocessing the Norwegian Web as Corpus (NoWaC) in R  ( 5 min )

I learned a great deal throughout this journey. In the second part, I gained knowledge about implementing logistic regression in Stan. I also learned the significance of data type declarations for obtaining accurate estimates, how to use posterior to ... Continue reading: An Educational Stroll With Stan – Part 2  ( 10 min )

On the plane back from Vancouver, I read Bertrand’s Paradox Resolution and Its Implications for the Bing–Fisher Problem by Richard A. Chechile [who had pointed out his paper to me] In this paper, Chechile considers the Bayesian connections/sequences of Betrand’s paradox, as he sees it Bertrand’s different solutions/paradox to be “designed to illustrate his dissatisfaction […]  ( 7 min )

On the plane back from Vancouver, I read Bertrand’s Paradox Resolution and Its Implications for the Bing–Fisher Problem by Richard A. Chechile [who had pointed out his paper to me] In this paper, Chechile considers the Bayesian connections/sequences of Betrand’s paradox, as he sees it Bertrand’s different solutions/paradox to be “designed to illustrate his dissatisfaction […]  ( 7 min )

Visit the post for more.  ( 6 min )

The editor in chief, managing editors, and entire editorial board of a mathematics journal all resigned earlier this year following a dispute with their publisher over special issues and article volume.  Changes the publisher wanted to make to the journal “would have the effect of jeopardizing scientific integrity for the sake of financial gain,” the … Continue reading After resigning en masse, math journal editors launch new publication  ( 11 min )

The niceties and narcissism of a business network Continue reading on The Writing Cooperative »  ( 8 min )

Your stories are diamonds but if you treat them as stones no one would read them.  ( 22 min )

77 lectures on applied category theory, for your reading pleasure.  ( 3 min )

77 lectures on applied category theory, for your reading pleasure.  ( 3 min )

Want to learn applied category theory? You can now read my lectures here: • Lectures on applied category theory There are a lot of them, but each one is bite-sized and basically covers just one idea. They’re self-contained, but you can also read them along with Fong and Spivak’s free book to get two outlooks […]  ( 8 min )

Want to learn applied category theory? You can now read my lectures here: • Lectures on applied category theory There are a lot of them, but each one is bite-sized and basically covers just one idea. They’re self-contained, but you can also read them along with Fong and Spivak’s free book to get two outlooks […]  ( 8 min )

Whether you're in the mood for a humble bowl of rice and beans or a more decadent French cassoulet, these 16 bean recipes have you covered.  ( 14 min )

Half the size of half-sheet pans, quarter sheet pans easily fit in a toaster oven and are useful for roasting, baking, mise en place, and more.  ( 15 min )

Pantrucas (Chilean Noodle Soup) is a comforting soup served piping hot and consisting of beef broth, fresh eggless noodles, and a balanced medley of spices and vegetables.  ( 22 min )

Plus: Delta Air Lines rethinking loyalty program changes; a school bus driver hits a bicyclist on Interstate 35E; remembering Minneapolis design pioneers Miranda Moss and Peter Seitz; and more.  ( 6 min )

MinnPost is seeking an Associate Editor.  ( 6 min )

City Council members hope officials can enforce the ban without issuing a slew of tickets, but opponents are worried that people of color will be disproportionately targeted.  ( 13 min )

With municipal elections this November, we asked what issues are of greatest interest and concern to our readers. Here are the (unscientific) results.  ( 10 min )

Plus: mssv at the Turf Club; Kassa Overall at Icehouse; and a conversation with artist Bobby Wilson  ( 16 min )

Klobuchar has introduced the Protect Elections from Deceptive AI Act, bipartisan legislation that would prohibit the distribution of materially deceptive AI-generated audio, images, or video relating to federal candidates in political ads or fundraising efforts.  ( 13 min )

Minnesota and the U.S. as a whole could learn from Canada and other countries that have leaned into nuclear power in the transition away from fossil fuels.  ( 20 min )

Head Coach Chris Finch offers a spirited pushback on whether or not the Rudy Gobert trade was the best thing.  ( 26 min )

In theater, film, television and online streaming, numerous no-shows or unseen characters are central to the plot of the stories being told. This "Great Pumpkin Effect" works in politics, too.  ( 13 min )

Plus: Emme Krumbee's orchard closed after more than four decades; Winona dubbed the 'Miami of Minnesota'; Minnesota murder suspect arrested after accidental release from Indiana jail; and more.  ( 6 min )

Thousands pass through the United Nations Plaza, a pedestrian mall adjacent to San Francisco’s commanding Beaux-Arts City Hall, each day. It’s a gateway to the city’s Civic Center and an access point for multiple forms of public transportation. For over 40 years, it even hosted one of the city’s largest farmers markets. But beneath the paving stones lies a secret. Beginning in 1850, when this now central corridor was then at the city’s westernmost edge, an estimated 7,000 to 9,000 bodies were buried in the sandy soil here. With the city’s population heaving with Gold Rush-driven newcomers, it took just eight years to fill the cemetery known as Yerba Buena. After Yerba Buena Cemetery stopped accepting new residents in 1858, the cemetery quickly fell into disuse. Body harvesting (for med…  ( 22 min )

The Helsinki Metro's Kamppi metro station bears more than a passing resemblance to an enormous cave. This similarity is only bolstered by a prominent art installation that has been located on the station platform since 2013, featuring hundreds of signs pointing to the birthplaces of current Helsinki residents, which loom from above and form crystal-like stalactite structures. The signs are the creation of artist Otto Karvonen, who was commissioned by the Helsinki Art Museum to create the piece. Spanning six continents and more than half of the world's countries, "Roots of the City" prominently features many obscure towns that may be totally unfamiliar to most viewers. In this way, it emphasizes the diverse and cosmopolitan population of Finland's capital city, and by extension, the welcoming place that Finland as a whole has become in the twenty-first century.  ( 13 min )

In the first half of the 19th century, French naturalist (and contemporary of Charles Darwin) Alcide D'Orbigny traveled throughout South America collecting specimens. One of the places he stopped in was Cochabamba, Bolivia. In a quiet, walled-off compound on the city's arterial Avenida América stands the Natural History Museum Alcide D'Orbigny, which houses a collection of remains both recent and ancient from across the country. Past the fossils and taxidermied fauna, is a living resident who represents a remarkable struggle for survival. His name is Romeo, and for a time he was the last known Sehuencas water frog. Thanks to the efforts of the K'ayra Center, which is headquartered at the museum, global attention was drawn to Romeo's plight as the world's loneliest frog. But an expedition in 2019 uncovered several more individuals of Romeo's species, including his aptly-named partner, Juliet. The pair now live in the excellent care of K'ayra's committed conservationists.  ( 13 min )

The Kennedy Gold Mine is a reminder of how the discovery of this precious metal transformed the American Wet. It also happens to be one of the deepest mines in the world. There are surface tours, so visitors can see the old building, the big wheels from the tailings, and the huge head frame. Like so much of the area, the mine is allegedly haunted and there are paranormal tours done through out the year.  ( 13 min )

Approximately 40 kilometers north of the city of León, the course of the Torío River leads to Vegacervera, a small and beautiful village. At the exit of the village, we find Las Hoces, where fluvial erosion of the limestone rock has given rise to a gorge with large vertical walls, some of which are over 100 meters high. Las Hoces de Vegacervera makes up one of the most remarkable natural spaces in Spain, the result of the patient fight of water against rock. The narrow valley stretches just 15 meters wide in some places. It's part of a landscape of incomparable beauty, in which beech, oak, and juniper forests survive. At the bottom of the valley, the water dazzles us with its musical flow, between willows and poplars. At the end of the gorge, a steep road leads us to Valporquero, where the entrance to a cave is located. Cueva de Valporquero is one of the youngest caves in the Iberian Peninsula, at just a million years old. (In geological time, that's quite youthful.) It seems incredible that the cold stream that accompanies us from the entrance has forged during this time the impressive formations that turn this space into a true underground cathedral. Paths, bridges, and stairs lead between stalactites, stalagmites, deep chasms, enormous columns, and huge cavities. The usual route takes us through various spaces with evocative names: the great roundabout, the small wonders, the fairies room, the stalactite cemetery, the high street, the solitary column, the great wonders. In spring, when the stream is loaded with snowmelt from the surrounding mountains, the noise of the water currents and the waterfalls make the cave an even more fascinating place.  ( 14 min )

"In Dietzenbach, a devil sits under a roof" is a local saying that stemmed from a carving of a devil in an old wooden house. After a bombing in 1941, the carving was destroyed, but the saying remained, which led to the creation of this controversial statue in its honor.  ( 12 min )

The town of Sag Harbor, New York, located on Long Island’s South Fork, may at first glance seem like a natural fit for arthouse theaters to thrive. However, its only independent cinema was preserved not only from the economic downturn facing movie theaters, but also from the effects of a devastating fire. A former whaling village, Sag Harbor has always had a more bohemian reputation than the nearby Hamptons, with more year-round residents including writers, artists, and movie-makers, and the theater has been part of the progression. Opening first as a vaudeville house, the theater showed its first movie on November 1, 1919. In 1936, the cinema was remodeled by famed architect John Eberson, at which point it received its distinctive Art Deco look, with a white facade and neon lettering reading “Sag Harbor” that would soon become a town landmark. By the 2000s, Sag Harbor Cinema was the only arthouse cinema on the East End, and plans were readied for its long-term preservation. However, on December 16, 2016, a fire that had started at a nearby café reached the theater, severely damaging it and destroying much of the iconic exterior. The theater itself had survived, but its future was uncertain. The theater saw an outpouring of support from volunteers and donations led by the non-profit organization that became its new owners. The neon sign (a replica of the original) was badly damaged in the fire but was salvaged and later repaired for free by local volunteers. The theater, which had been a single screen for its entire history, was rebuilt as a triplex, with many of the historic details either salvaged or replicated from the original theater. With the neon once again abuzz, the theater reopened to the public in June of 2021.  ( 14 min )

The Swedish village of Falsterbo is known for the Falsterbo Horse Show, golf courses, beaches, and much more. But there is at least one place in the village that is not so "known" among visitors, but very familiar to locals: the Shoemaker's Pear Tree. To the visitor, the place appears to consist of a lawn that is used to park cars on, and a collection of pear trees behind a fence, but not all is what it seems. This is a very special place. This is the home of the trolls, or Vättarna in Swedish. According to the saying from the olden days, the trolls live under the pear trees, in tunnels under the ground. They prefer to dress in gray, they can make themselves invisible when they want to and don't want to be disturbed. The pear trees were a gift from the residents of Falsterbo to the trolls. By gifting the pear trees to the trolls, they got a home of their own and stopped the trolls from entering people's houses at night and making a mess.  The trolls are skilled craftsmen and it is said that if you leave your broken shoes under a pear tree after dark, along with a bowl of porridge, you can return there at sunrise and get your mended shoes. An old local legend says that if a woman goes to the place barefoot after dark, picks a pear, and eats it on the spot in complete silence, she will dream of her future husband within three days. The place is by law an ancient monument and it is forbidden to take cuttings or the like from the pear trees, but it is allowed to pick the pears. For those of you who walk in broken shoes, consider a visit!  ( 13 min )

Originally owned by machinist John Walker, this massive factory located on what was once known as Waverly Ave in Cleveland, Ohio, housed the Walker Manufacturing Corporation. The company manufactured a vast amount of heavy machinery varying from hydraulic shears and hydraulic riveters to cable railroad machinery and foundry equipment. In 1894, Walker was in the midst of a patent-infringement lawsuit, which was filed by the owner and founder of Westinghouse Electric, George Westinghouse. Four years later, in 1898, Walker lost the court battle, forcing him to surrender his manufacturing plant, worth $1 million at the time, to Westinghouse. Westinghouse, a skilled engineer and entrepreneur, went on to become a pioneer of the electric industry. Once he became the rightful owner of the plant, Westinghouse wasted no time establishing a thriving business in Cleveland producing aluminum and brass castings with production later expanding to a variety of lights, including those used at airports and along highways. Cycling through a number of names, Westinghouse Electric had become Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company, which was later renamed and remained, Westinghouse Electric Corporation. After World War II, the multipurpose engineering firm grew its service and sales departments. The large manufacturing facility on Waverly was closed as operations were relocated to the greater Cleveland area. By 1994, Cleveland Westinghouse facilities were purchased by Eaton Corporation for $1.6 billion, with plans to convert the factory into other commercial enterprises. Nearly 30 years later, the factory still sits abandoned as it slowly falls apart with no plans of development in the foreseeable future.  ( 13 min )

Canada is pushing the United States and other major economies to follow through on pledges to phase out “inefficient” fossil fuel subsidies, which have soared despite the growing threat of climate change. Such subsidies hit records last year, according to several watchdog groups, including one that estimated that major world economies — members of the […] The post They are solving for the equilibrium appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         Comments In reply to DJ. Roads are a public good that benefit every ... by ThatsNotAll Draining the SPR to keep petroleum prices low is a massive ... by ThatsNotAll In reply to DJ. Presumably the gas tax will drop, not rise, ... by Anon In reply to John Hall. Right, or they just don't understand ... by Ira Gilligan In reply to Etalon d’Silomar. That's, in part, why we have ... by EdR Plus 10 more... Related Stories What should I ask Patrick McKenzie? Tail risk in production networks Dynamic Graphs in Modern Principles  ( 6 min )

1. Presale link for the new Coleman Hughes book. 2. The Fish and Wildlife Service constraint on SpaceX. 3. “Proprietor Israel Mizrahi is quite familiar with the shocked look on your face.” 4. Branko here is speaking more truth than he realizes.  He is just on the wrong side. 5. Meta to launch new Chatbots.  […] The post Thursday assorted links appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         Comments In reply to M. Another way of putting it; in subsequent ... by M In reply to Gridlock. Posted in the wrong spot. S/B in ... by Gridlock In reply to Lord Action. Oh boy. You should go read Dan's ... by Gridlock Oh boy. You should go read Dan's comment above. SpaceX is not ... by Gridlock In reply to Wondering. > evidence was “insufficient” for ... by PHinton Plus 10 more...  ( 6 min )

This paper describes the response of the economy to large shocks in a nonlinear production network. A sector’s tail centrality, measures how a large negative shock transmits to GDP – i.e. the systemic risk of the sector. Tail centrality is theoretically and empirically very different from local centrality measures such as sales share – in […] The post Tail risk in production networks appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         Comments Heh-heh. He said “tail.” by Tom T. In reply to dearieme. Agree on usage. In most disciplines. ... by PHinton Whenever I see an expression such as “a nonlinear production ... by dearieme Related Stories Dynamic Graphs in Modern Principles Patents, Intellectual Property and the Rise of the Rent Seeking Society What should I ask Patrick McKenzie?  ( 7 min )

Achieve is the excellent course management system for our textbook, Modern Principles. With Achieve, teachers can assign videos, homework, exercises and so forth. One advantage of online education is that students can engage with interactive exercises that give them immediate feedback. Achieve also includes an electronic version of Modern Principles and all the graphs are […] The post Dynamic Graphs in Modern Principles appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         Comments Looking at the content of the graph, it's like Argentina is on ... by John In reply to dan1111. The successes of Japan and South Korea ... by Todd K In reply to Alex Tabarrok. I'd say a log graph is better. ... by Todd K In reply to Alex Tabarrok. Okay now plot Elrond coin prices: ... by Karl Pooper In reply to Jeffrey. Devices of that kind are the true ... by skyzyks Plus 10 more... Related Stories The Productivity of Online Education Increases From my email, I will read this book Texas fact of the day, educational polarization issue  ( 6 min )

From a new NBER working paper: Infrastructure costs in the United States are high and rising. The procurement process is one potential cost driver. In this paper we conduct a survey of procurement practices across the 50 states. We survey both employees at each state department of transportation (DOT) and the road builders that win […] The post Procurement and infrastructure costs appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         Comments A simple 10 mile long, 2' thick overlay requires about 15,000 ... by SP In reply to Dino the Isaurian. That's the whole point. ... by gjk I read the paper (quickly) with an eye towards the competitor ... by Old Primate In reply to Ricardo. Ah, no privately-owned madrasas etc for ... by M In reply to TomWinTejas. I feel the exact opposite. by OutHere Plus 10 more...  ( 7 min )

I won’t double indent, here is the email: ““Whatever It Is, I’m Against It,” Resistance to Change in Higher Education (Harvard Education Press; September 26, 2023; Price: $38.00), is a relentlessly frank look at higher education from the perspective of a long-time college president, dean, and faculty member.     Rosenberg attempts, in this book, to answer a […] The post From my email, I will read this book appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         Comments In reply to gjk. Yes, ROTC is still a big deal at a lot of ... by anonprof In reply to Sure. You are overstating your case. I'm not ... by anonprof Why should we be surprised that school instructors are so ... by Jim Dunning In reply to Sure. The US is not really what I was necessarily ... by M But see: ... by F. E. Guerra-Pujol Plus 10 more... Related Stories Texas fact of the day, educational polarization issue Emergent Ventures winners, 29th cohort The Productivity of Online Education Increases  ( 7 min )

Fluorinated chemicals known as PFAS are ubiquitous in the environment and have been found to increase the risk of certain cancers and other conditions. A document analysis shows that PFAS manufacturers knew for decades about the chemicals’ toxicity but kept promoting them to the public.  ( 13 min )

Also T+1 settlement, private investigators and a Cash Flow King.  ( 2 min )

A new simulation shows black holes ripping apart and consuming their accretion disk in a matter of months, which may explain why some quasars quickly brighten and dim

Scientists are trying to master the basic computing element known as a qubit to make quantum computers more powerful than electronic machines

Puerto Rico will be hit hardest by spending restrictions set by FEMA as disaster funding runs short. More than $2 billion is expected to be withheld from the island, which is still reeling from past hurricanes

Sarah Loguen Fraser was the daughter of abolitionists and one of the first African American female doctors trained after the Civil War.

Climate change is making heat waves stronger and longer. Naming and ranking them like we do with hurricanes will make governments, companies and people take hot days more seriously

A new book argues that genomics is overshadowing environmental and social solutions to better health for all

Pioneering scholar Riane Eisler describes her lifelong quest to understand why warlike societies are the norm

A botched obituary underlines threats from both artificial intelligence and digital plagiarism mills to pollute the news with misinformation

With three degrees Celsius of warming, U.S. deaths during extreme temperatures could reach 63,000 a year, researchers calculate

Biden’s new program is expected to hire 20,000 people in its first year for renewable energy projects and ecological restoration

The butterflies, and gas, in your tummy while you’re in flight might not just be from nerves

Scientists have uncovered an ancient trilobite’s last meal preserved inside a nearly intact fossil

Mastodon follows to RSS / OPML (add’l. info.) 📌 “Takes a CSV of accounts you follow on Mastodon and turns it into a list of blogs and RSS feeds” Cheetah 📌 “...simplifies the process of setting up and running virtual environments, empowering you to accomplish more with your Mac” How People with Disabilities Use the Web 📌 “How do people who cannot move their arms use your website? What about people who cannot see well or at all? Or people who have difficulty hearing or understanding, or have other disabilities?” tuifeed 📌 “📰 A terminal feed reader with a fancy ui” Why are hyperlinks blue? 📌 “...a deep dive into the history of interfaces and link designs over the years to track down the origin of the blue link we know today”  ( 2 min )

Our plan was to go to Cleveland because that’s conveniently located not too far from various family members, but then someone said that the weather there in April is not so great, and it’s not so fun seeing an eclipse … Continue reading →  ( 13 min )

Not Chinese.  Do you understand? This has long been a cabbage of contention, but make no mistake about it:  fermented kimchee / kimchi  (gimchi 김치 (IPA [kim.tɕʰi]) (lit., "soaked [in their own juices of fermentation] vegetables") is not the same thing as pickled paocai / pao tsai 泡菜 (lit., "soaked [in brine] vegetables"). Kimchee and […]  ( 14 min )

“To know anything in space (for instance, a line), I must draw it…”Immanuel Kant Why should you have a philosophy of science? It’s not just students who find it inconvenient to have to declare their epistemological and ontological assumptions, to decide whether they’re positivists or postmodernists, or gauge the depth of their realism or constructivism. … Continue reading The Conditions Under Which the Objects of Human Knowledge Are Given →  ( 6 min )

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Team Ratings for Week 9 The basic method is described on my Department home page. Here are the team ratings prior to this week’s games, along with the ratings at the start of the season. Current Rating Rating at Season Start Difference Wellington 13.22 8.72 4.50 Canterbury 7.14 9.44 -2.30 North Harbour 5.27 7.75 -2.50 […] Bunnings NPC Predictions for Week 9 first appeared on Stats Chat.  ( 4 min )

Now that the invited sessions have been selected by the scientific committee of ISBA²⁴ (with both sessions in which I am involved, Bayesian data privacy and The future of ISBA conferences, accepted), the call is open for contributed talks, with deadline 17 November. (If  this helps in making a proposal, childcare will be available during […]  ( 7 min )

Now that the invited sessions have been selected by the scientific committee of ISBA²⁴ (with both sessions in which I am involved, Bayesian data privacy and The future of ISBA conferences, accepted), the call is open for contributed talks, with deadline 17 November. (If  this helps in making a proposal, childcare will be available during […]  ( 7 min )

I experimented with writing a different type of poetry Continue reading on The Writing Cooperative »  ( 7 min )

Continue reading on The Writing Cooperative »  ( 8 min )

From real-life doctor to Hollywood writers’ room, the writer found a way to marry her greatest passions — saving lives and storytelling Continue reading on The Writing Cooperative »  ( 8 min )

Close to the border between Yokohama and the historic city of Kamakura lies an esoteric network of tunnels and vaulted chambers adorned with Buddhist reliefs. Commonly referred to as the Taya Caves, the Yugadō ("yoga grotto") of Jōsen-ji Temple is a fascinating mystery, rich in history and ambiance. Believed to be the site of an ancient burial cave, the Yugadō predates the temple itself, whose origin can be traced back to 1532. The tunnels were dug in the early Kamakura period (circa 1185-1333) and used as a place for ascetic training by Buddhist monks of the esoteric Mantra Sect. Many of the mystical reliefs were carved by the monks as they meditated and prayed to reach enlightenment. Decorating the high vaults and the sandstone walls of the narrow passages are images of Buddhist deities, mythological creatures, and Sanskrit characters, some crumbling but otherwise preserved in good condition. When an earthquake hit the area at some point in the Edo period (1603-1868), some of the vaulted ceilings collapsed and the Taya Caves lay deserted for many decades, until local villagers started to draw the spring water from them for their rice paddies around 1830. Inspired, the monks also resumed their ascetic practice in the spiritual confinement. The spring water, locally known as the Otonashi-gawa (“soundless river”), runs throughout the intricate web of caves and cascades down some of the walls. In the sacred chamber dedicated to the stone effigy of the great monk Kūkai, the serene flow is given the name of the Diamond Water, rich in healing and wish-granting properties. Since 1927, the grottoes have been open to the public, and the monks also continue their practice of asceticism in this esoteric dungeon to this day. Carrying a candle in hand, visitors can explore the ancient tunnels and the chambers, each of which stands in for a major sacred site across Japan; by the time you exit, you’ll have completed a good old Buddhist pilgrimage and cleansed your soul and body.  ( 14 min )

From a modern wristwatch to an antique timepiece, the sound of a clock ticking is one of the most iconic and instantly recognizable in the world. Inside the Willard House and Clock Museum, the sound of time passing is continuous and comprised of a chorus of historical clocks some of which have been functioning almost non-stop for over 200 years.  Located within a rural and picturesque area of Grafton, Massachusetts, the museum is housed within an old red farm homestead originally built in 1718. It was here that the Willard brothers Benjamin, Simon, Ephraim, and Aaron dedicated their lives to both farming and clockmaking. Out of all the brothers, Simon became the most famous being the inventor of the eight-day patent timepiece which later came to be known as the banjo clock, and for also …  ( 14 min )

Here you can see almost every species of rattlesnake in the United States, including a few from Mexico. Along with a few local insects, arachnids, skinks, and even Gila monsters. Jeffery Ross, known as "Buzz," had a lifelong love of reptiles and big dreams to match. As the former supervisor of the reptile house at the Fort Worth Zoo, Buzz had a yearning to move out to West Texas in the Davis mountains. He moved to Fort Davis and went into taxidermy with a partner. After he bought his partner out, the business, shop, and a parcel of land were his. The property has a long history. His shop had been a market and general store. Behind it is an adobe-and-rock motel, used during the days of horse-drawn wagons, that closed in 1953. In between the two, there was even a 1,400-square-foot house, which became handy for keeping a few extra snakes. Ross had long dreamed of opening a rattlesnake museum. He already had the snakes, most of which he caught himself, so one mad day in April 2000, Ross rashly cashed in his investments and began renovating the taxidermy shop and started working on snake displays, with the help of a friend named Scott Tepes. He started with four snakes—today there are over 30. The Houston Chronicle once described it as "the funkiest roadside attraction west of the Pecos." Sadly, Ross passed away in May 2018. He passed the museum on to his longtime friend Scott Tepes, a snake expert in his own right. Given Ross's eclectic nature, Tepes had a lot of work to do cleaning things up. Over 50 vehicles have been removed from the property and the old motel in the back is even getting cleaned up. Although Tepes would prefer to call it the Fort Davis Rattlesnake Museum, however, that might take a new sign since the mural on the building has become quite beloved.  ( 14 min )

While in everyday life we do not use it much directly, it is crucial to know the elevation of a place to properly build and construct. For most of the world, this is based on the Amsterdam Ordinance Datum. Before this standard was put in place, each country had its own datum, off of which they could base measurements of elevation, like Sweden's Normalhöjdpunkten. Switzerland is no different, but because the landlocked country did not have access to the sea, they based their measure on a seemingly random stone in Lake Geneva. The Pierres du Niton (Neptune's Stones) are a pair of glacial erratics, rocks transported by the movement of a glacier. The stones in Geneva harbor were left behind as the Rhône glacier moved across this landscape in the last ice age. The reference point of the Swiss altimeter system was defined at the Pierres du Niton in the early 19th century. Later measurements, determined by a large web of connected points between Geneva and Marseille, France, put the Pierres du Niton marker's elevation at precisely 373.6 meters above sea level. The stone was picked primarily because of its proximity to the French border and a location that was unlikely to be disturbed by construction or other human activity.  ( 13 min )

In the woods outside of Rock Hill, South Carolina, stand the crumbling ruins of a once-grand house. Just a few years after it was completed its owner, Hamilton Carhartt, was killed in an automobile accident in 1937. The founder of the Carhartt clothing company lived in Michigan, but had a second home built in Rock Hill because Carhartt owned a large cotton mill in the town. The clothing company employed many of the townspeople in the early 1900s, though this was only one of several major mills that supported the town’s economy. After Carhartt died, the property was left vacant for a time. New owners came in and tried to restore the property and its grounds, but the site was eventually deserted. Now all that's left is the crumbling remains of the once-grand mansion. Today, Carhartt clothing is one of the most popular brands in America, though the company no longer has a presence in Rock Hill. This mansion now sits in ruins along the mountain bike trails of what is now the Riverwalk neighborhood. Numerous ruined structures can be freely explored by anyone willing to hike or bike to the location.  ( 13 min )

The Sucevița Monastery is a must-visit destination for anyone who loves history, art, and architecture. Sucevița (“The Church of the Resurrection”) is an Eastern Orthodox convent located in northeastern Romania. Founded in 1581 by Bishop Gheorghe Movila and expanded by Prince Ieremia, the monastery boasts a fortress-like appearance with high walls and defensive towers. According to a local legend, the stone used to build the monastery was transported in an ox-drawn cart by a single woman who was attempting to repent for her sins. The frescoes, painted by local artists in 1602-1604, are a sight to behold, with the Ladder to Paradise and the Tree of Jesse being the most impressive. The thick walls of the monastery now house a museum with an outstanding collection of historical and art objects, including the tomb covers of Ieremia and Simion Movila, ecclesiastical silverware, books, and illuminated manuscripts. Fun fact: Sucevita was the last of the 22 painted churches of Bucovina and has the largest number of painted images.  ( 13 min )

This limestone cave in central Texas was carved by a river that has long since dried up. Now known as Longhorn Cavern (because the wide mouth in its ceiling caused several unsuspecting longhorns to fall to their deaths), the subterranean site has been used by humans for thousands of years. There is evidence that parts of the cave were used to mine materials for arrowheads and other weapons and tools. During the Civil War, Texans mined the caverns for guano (bat poop), which could be used as an ingredient in gunpowder recipes. Legend has it that failed train robber and outlaw Sam Bass, who wreaked havoc on the nearby city of Round Rock in the 1870s, hid his stash of stolen cash in the caves, though it has never been found.  In the 1920s, the massive main room of the cavern served as a dance hall called the Underground Ballroom. In the 1960s, Longhorn Cavern became a licensed and stocked nuclear fallout shelter, capable of holding over 1,000 people and stocked with food, water, and other supplies.   Inside the cave, you can find a number of distinct formations. There's the Queen's Throne, which resembles an immense, high-backed chair. Standing nearby is a white stone formation that resembles a hound standing at attention. The formation was not carved but discovered by Civilian Conservation Corps workers in another part of the cave. It was moved to be near the throne, and given the nickname the Queen's Watchdog.  ( 13 min )

The Dutch national memorial for the victims of the Holocaust and the Porajmos commemorates the estimated 102,000 Jewish victims from across the Netherlands who were arrested by Nazis during the German occupation of the country. The monument also remembers the 220 Roma and Sinti victims. Visitors wander through corridors made out of red brick walls. Inscribed on each of these bricks are the alphabetically ordered names, dates of birth, and ages at death of a victim of the Holocaust. These victims were deported and killed in Auschwitz and Sobibor. On top of the brick walls, four stainless steel profiles are mounted in the shape of the four Hebrew characters forming the word לזכר, which means "in memory of." A separate section called the 1,000 Names Wall has purposely been left with 1,000 blank bricks to allow additional names to be added in case further victims are later identified.  ( 13 min )

In Juab County, Utah, there is a natural cave that rivals man-made architectural wonders. This limestone and feldspar cavern was once filled by Lake Bonneville. Since 1956, the Bates family has curated the attraction for the Federal government and offers guided tours from their nearby ranch. The story goes that the father of the family was out looking for his sheep in the hills and chanced upon a narrow opening in the rock. He uncovered a massive cavern that has, for years, sparked archaeological and geological debates as experts continue to study the cave. From prehistoric creatures to geological mysteries, visitors leave with a story that's millennia in the making. Minerals found in the cave range from common to rare. One mineral found in the cave, calcite iceland spar—also called "optical calcite"—is revered for its crystal clarity. Historically, it was used for various optical instruments, including the top secret Norden Bombsight of World War II. You can get an authentic ranch-lodging experience in the Bates' custom cabins, which offer a respite from the Utah sun in a shaded grove of crabapples and grand trees. This land has been in their family since pioneers settled the land.  Several miles from the ranch cabins is Gandy Warm Springs, which is publicly accessible via a gravel road. Clean, clear, and constantly 81 degrees, this oasis is the perfect place for a swim on a hot day or a soak in the cool evening twilight. Reeds and brush make the spring semi-private from the otherwise wide-open valley.  ( 14 min )

Just off the coast of Astoria, Queens, at the confluence of the Harlem and East Rivers, is a narrow tidal channel. Hell Gate. Its fast currents change multiple times a day and it used to be riddled with rocks just beneath the surface. Even today, visitors to Randall’s Island Park can see the swirling churn and watch pleasure boaters struggle through. American author Washington Irving wrote an essay about it: “Woe to the unlucky vessel that ventures into its clutches.” But many a vessel did venture into those clutches over the centuries. Traversing it could save sailors navigating between New York Harbor and Southern New England days of travel around Long Island. This expediency often came at a cost. Hell Gate is the final resting place of literally hundreds of ships. Most of them are for…  ( 35 min )

Atlas Obscura’s Wondersky columnist Rebecca Boyle is an award-winning science journalist and author of the upcoming Our Moon: How Earth’s Celestial Companion Transformed the Planet, Guided Evolution, and Made Us Who We Are (January 2024, Random House). She regularly shares the stories and secrets of our wondrous night sky. For people in the Northern Hemisphere, time is running short to see the lavender haze of our home galaxy’s heart. We have just a few weeks of chances left before the Milky Way’s central area disappears from view, owing to Earth’s orbit around the sun. But for now, the galactic center is still apparent, especially in the next couple of weeks, as the Sept. 29 full moon—the final supermoon of 2023—wanes. If you are somewhere you can see the Milky Way at night, lucky you…  ( 19 min )

One of four "reaction ferries" that cross the Rhine in Basel, the Münster Ferry carries passengers between Grossbasel to Kleinbasel, relying on the current to do so. The ferries were once common along the Rhine between the 1600s and 1800s, before being gradually replaced by bridges. Now, the Basel ferries are the only ones that remain in operation on this river. The ferry is attached to a cable that joins the two riverbanks, and moves as the river current pushes against a rudder. The rudder is attached to a long bar, which the boat's driver swings to one side or the other depending on the direction of travel. The faster the current, the faster the trip--leaving your journey entirely up to the whims of the Rhine. So, sit back and enjoy the relative silence of motorless boat travel and take in one of the most unique views in the city of Münster Cathedral.  ( 13 min )

Deep within the JC Sonny Gilbert Wildlife Management Area stands Louisiana's tallest waterfall, a staggering 17-foot drop down a rock face surrounded by a thick hardwood forest covering the steep Sicily Island Hills. The short Rock Falls Trail is adequately marked, although there's not much of a trail to follow, down a hillside, then through lush woods.  The trailhead is on a gravel road about a mile or so further north.  ( 13 min )

The press is full of excitement today at the news that anti-matter — hydrogen anti-atoms, specifically, made from positrons and anti-protons instead of electrons and protons — falls down rather than rising up. This has been shown in the ALPHA experiment at CERN. But no theoretical physicist is surprised. Today I’ll explain one of many ... Read more  ( 13 min )

Personally, I think that popular science books ought to devote more pages to the issue of how language is used in science. The words scientists choose are central to communication and miscommunication both among researchers and between scientists and non-scientists. The problem is that all language is full of misnomers and contradictory definitions, and scientific ... Read more  ( 14 min )

My day started with a long and very fun conversation with Monica Pate (NYU) about conservation laws in classical physics. As we all know, conservation laws are related to symmetries; each symmetry of the laws of physics creates a conservation law. Or does it? Well, it's a theorem! But it's a theorem when the laws of physics are lagrangian (or hamiltonian). That is, every symmetry of a hamiltonian system is associated with a conservation law in that system. So I asked: How do we know if or whether the world is lagrangian or hamiltonian? How could we know that? My best guess is that we know it because of these very conservation laws! The situation is complex.  ( 14 min )

This July, I came upon a museum called the Haus der Musik in one of Vienna’s former palaces. The museum contains a room dedicated to Johann Strauss II, king of the waltz. The room, dimly lit, resembles a twilit gazebo. … Continue reading →  ( 12 min )

Two anthropology organizations co-hosting a conference this fall have removed from the program a panel presentation entitled “Let’s Talk About Sex, Baby: Why biological sex remains a necessary analytic category in anthropology.”  The panel had been slated for the joint annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association (AAA) and Canadian Anthropology Society (CASCA), to be … Continue reading Anthropology groups cancel conference panel on why biological sex is “necessary” for research  ( 10 min )

The iconic sci-fi opera “VALIS,” first composed by Professor Tod Machover in 1987, reboots at MIT for a new generation.  ( 11 min )

Inspired by physics, a new generative model PFGM++ outperforms diffusion models in image generation.  ( 10 min )

Sopaipillas (Chilean Fried Pastries) be served two ways: soaked in a spiced syrup for a comforting sweet treat, or served freshly fried and crispy with salsa.  ( 20 min )

In addition to being economical, homemade preserves and pickles can be the make-ahead element that takes your meals to the next level. Over the years we've amassed a wealth of shelf-stable canning recipes, from whole canned tomatoes to pickles, relishes, jams, and jellies.

Whether it’s a chic wine glass or an everyday tumbler, our resident glassware collector has a set of glasses for every occasion.  ( 22 min )

This is absolutely insane. TAMU was probably one of the most conservative flagship state universities in the nation https://t.co/z3yVLvoe7I — constans (@constans) September 25, 2023 The post Texas fact of the day, educational polarization issue appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         Comments In reply to aaron. Obama was President 8 years ago, young ... by Ahh In reply to Matt2. >There are a whole lot of people who can ... by OldCurmudgeon In reply to Brent. Where do the people who work in college ... by Does anybody remember laughter? woke wednesday's new yorky times debunking objectivity award ... by community notes In reply to Joe Bush. Yet the sharpest shift was 2004-2008. I ... by anonprof Plus 10 more... Related Stories Patience and educational achievement The Rise of and Demand for Identity-Oriented Media Coverage Emergent Ventures winners, 29th cohort  ( 6 min )

1. Burkey Belser, RIP. 2. Why is multilateralism in the tax sphere surviving when multilateralism is collapsing elsewhere? 3. The U.S. effects of banning cousin marriage. 4. I am not convinced, but here is an argument that AI will lead to explosive rates of economic growth.  And a new AI hardware device? (this has been […] The post Wednesday assorted links appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         Comments “5. We’ve finally mapped all of Zealandia.” ... by mkt42 In reply to Karl Pooper. Jordan Peterson has become a bit ... by LivelyClock In reply to Engineer. Yes, I am very bullish on AR. I ... by LivelyClock In reply to Michael Thomas. Or more succinctly. It's about ... by LivelyClock In reply to RAD. Apple Silicon is impressive, for sure. But ... by Michael Thomas Plus 10 more...  ( 6 min )

During the summer I had the opportunity to spend a week at a16z’s crypto lab in New York City where I gave a fun talk on intellectual property including patents and copyrights, the great stagnation, the diffusion of ideas, American economic dynamism and even some discussion of AI and copyright in the Q&A.  Check it […] The post Patents, Intellectual Property and the Rise of the Rent Seeking Society appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         Comments Alex- how many bodyguards did you hire? I hope you disclaimed ... by Antony T. In reply to Marxism?. Haven't watched the video. I expect AT ... by bazza Best sentence I have heard today: “[Michelangelo] looks at ... by Brent Reform comments: The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ... by Brent In reply to Brent. You are obviously better at creating ... by Brent Plus 10 more... Related Stories The Zero Sum Idea Trap What should I ask Patrick McKenzie? It is the poor who are lonely (on average)  ( 6 min )

In the mid-1980s manufacturing accounted for a third of Brazil’s gdp; now it represents just 10%. The country’s surplus in manufacturing trade, $6bn in 2005, became a deficit of $108bn by 2019. Productivity in manufacturing and services has stagnated or shrunk. Here is more from The Economist, note that the hinterlands, such as Mato Grosso, […] The post Brazil facts of the day appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         Comments In reply to Phil S.. Brazil is now being depicted as a ... by Abelard Lindsey “The real problem is Brazil, not Brasilia.” You got the ... by Thad In reply to joan. You're missing 90% of the population. Look ... by Sean In reply to Jay. OK, thanks for the info/correction. FWIW, ... by Phil S. In reply to DF. Brazil made a deal with the devil (China). ... by EdR Plus 10 more...  ( 7 min )

Dan Rivera, South Carolina, FavorPiedmont, addiction recovery and treatment. Lukas Bogacz, Utrecht/South Africa, to start a company based on fine-tuning LLMs. Brian Wang, MIT, Panoplia Laboratories, for DNA-based pan-virus vaccine research. Gabriel Abrams, Washington, D.C., Sidwell (high school), LLMs and economic research. Chloe Chia, Berkeley, to pursue computational research about human behavior in dense cities. […] The post Emergent Ventures winners, 29th cohort appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         Comments In reply to Derek222. If my choices were Hitler or Stalin I'd ... by Anti-Gnostic In reply to Derek222. She's actually working on some ... by Richard Guo In reply to PHinton. Maybe they're implying (in a Straussian ... by OutHere In reply to Derek222. > Well. Not so much the SS Nazi who ... by PHinton In reply to OutHere. Not to say some of them aren't, but this ... by Anti-Gnostic Plus 10 more... Related Stories The Productivity of Online Education Increases School choice for North Carolina Patience and educational achievement  ( 7 min )

250 million years from now, the emergence of a new supercontinent could render most of Earth’s surface uninhabitable for mammals

Washington State’s Puget Sound could face previously unknown earthquake risks, according to a new study that has pinned down the date of an ancient earthquake using tree rings and the radiation left by a mysterious cosmic force

In theory, physicists knew that antimatter should behave just like matter under gravity’s pull. But until now, no one had ever seen it happen

Quantum algorithms can find their way out of mazes exponentially faster than classical ones, at the cost of forgetting the paths they took

How does bourbon, “America’s spirit,” get its distinctive taste and color?

This enormous structure could help explain processes close to the dawn of time—or it could be a random cosmic fluke

In 2014, a blind astronomer “sonified” the universe’s most explosive event: a gamma-ray burst. By listening to, rather than looking at, the data, she made a critical discovery and changed the field of astronomy.

The Y chromosome was once used to label people as criminal. A new complete Y chromosome sequence just might combat this dangerous myth

This is why we misinterpret life’s weird and wonderful random events

Newly purple streetlights might seem innocuous, but they could affect driver and pedestrian safety

The evolution of a chemical defense gland allowed the most diverse group of beetles to repel predators and go on to conquer wholly new environments

Plus: Minneapolis firefighters freed a man pinned under a train; Hennepin Theatre Trusts’ 2022-2023 Broadway season brings in $115 million; Pitchfork rates the “Tim” reissue a 10; and more.  ( 6 min )

By 2040, all of the state's power must come from carbon-free sources. Solar, hydro, and wind generation are being deployed at break-neck speed, but there's one black sheep in the carbon-free family: nuclear power.  ( 29 min )

Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack warned this week that if the federal government shuts down, a nutrition program that helps low-income mothers and their children would end “immediately.”  ( 21 min )

MinnPost interviewed Matt Varilek on Monday about his views on the economy in Greater Minnesota, child care, broadband, South Dakota, fraud in grant programs and more.  ( 29 min )

Can Kyle Anderson be as valuable as he was last season; consistency from Anthony Edwards on defense and the role Naz Reid.  ( 24 min )

Thank you to our VIPs, sponsors, passholders, panelists and staff for making this event a success!  ( 12 min )

Too many medical providers get involved only after people are sick. They should be offering help when people are healthy and want to stay that way.  ( 11 min )

Plus: Tech workers in Duluth picketing for fair pay; seniors across the metro express frustration with Life Time's new policy for adults over 65; Granite Falls Mayor Dave Smiglewski dies at 70; and more.  ( 6 min )

Also Sculptor sweeteners, Binance troubles, late 13D filings and the end of the volcano bond.  ( 2 min )

An interesting recent paper — Lukas Berglund, Meg Tong, Max Kaufmann, Mikita Balesni, Asa Cooper Stickland, Tomasz Korbak, and Owain Evans,"The Reversal Curse: LLMs trained on 'A is B' fail to learn 'B is A'", arXiv.org 9/21/2023. The abstract: We expose a surprising failure of generalization in auto-regressive large language models (LLMs). If a model […]  ( 10 min )

After quoting Jamal Khashoggi from 2017: Let’s talk about something other than women driving. The NEOM project, the futuristic city that he (the crown prince) plans to invest half a trillion dollars in. What if it goes wrong? It could … Continue reading →  ( 14 min )

In the previous post, Part 1, I criticized claims of a so-called “epidemic of loneliness” in America. Those claims are based on misunderstanding loneliness–for example, confusing it with actual isolation, not appreciating that most loneliness is longing for a romantic partner, and muddling loneliness up with other sad emotions. Moreover, there is little evidence that […]  ( 22 min )

Mortgage rates have been the highest in the US over the last 20 years. Inventory shortage and high inflation have driven home prices up. I have analyzed this situation by taking FMCC as an indicator of the American housing market. I’ve examined the distribution of Freddie Mac(FMCC) before and ... Continue reading: Forecasting Freddie Mac with the DeepAR Algorithm  ( 5 min )

Introduction Continue reading: Enhancing Your Data Visualizations with Base R: Overlaying Points and Lines  ( 7 min )

In the following we show how it is possible to obtain parallelizable, unbiased and computationally cheap estimates of Crossed random effects models with a linear cost in the number of datapoints (and paramaters) exploiting couplings. Crossed random effects models (CREM) Continue reading: Linear-cost unbiased estimator for large crossed random effect models via couplings  ( 21 min )

Onze overheden en het internationale bedrijfsleven leggen steeds grotere databases over ons aan, op een schaal die we 20 jaar geleden nooit geaccepteerd zouden hebben. Eerder schreef ik in de Volkskrant hoe we dit vroeger automatisch verwerpelijk vonden, met name vanwege onze herinnering aan de Tweede Wereldoorlog. Deze herinnering leeft minder en minder, en ook “Oost-Duitsland” en de Stasi zijn verdwenen en geen afschrikwekkend voorbeeld meer. En we hebben toch niets te verbergen?  ( 4 min )

with apologies to Raymond Carver Ontology is, famously, the study of what there is. In philosophy, especially after Kant, this question has been approached by way of epistemology, so that we now ask what is there to know. As academic writers, it can be useful to distinguish the act of knowing from the facts we … Continue reading What We Talk About When We Know What We’re Talking About →  ( 7 min )

After Covid-19 left millions of people without a sense of smell, research on olfactory dysfunction gained rapid attention. But three years later, scientists are still fighting to show that smell matters. Meanwhile, people born with the condition say they are being left out of the research.  ( 16 min )

p. 93 2.7.6: You define the support of a section for sheaves of abelian groups, and then define the support of a sheaf for the more general scenario of sheaves of *sets*. Then you observe that the support of a sheaf can be characterized in terms of the supports of its sections, but this doesn't really make sense for sheaves of sets, because the notion of support of a section doesn't really extend to sheaves of sets. This characterization works for sheaves of abelian groups, but it's not until the next paragraph that you actually explain how to generalize the definition of support of a sheaf in terms of the initial object of the corresponding category. So some rearrangement would probably help here.  ( 14 min )

Some time, around the 1980s, philosophers of science turned their attention to scientific experiments in a way that contrasted with the reigning approaches to philosophy of science. My colleague, Wendy Parker, and I decided to embark on an experiment of our own, aimed at elucidating some central themes of this evolving movement, sometimes referred to […]  ( 16 min )

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This drive-in movie theater has been in operation since 1977, showing new releases on twin projector screens. The projection booth and concession stand were originally built as part of a nearby drive-in theater in 1943 and relocated after its closure. There is no formal street address and a dirt road entrance.  ( 12 min )

"The Bench of the Lovers" or "The Lampposts in Love," is located in the beautiful Valentino Park and and was created by the artist-gardener Rodolfo Marasciuolo, a municipal gardener.  Sitting on the bench with the lampposts, visitors can see the various wildlife around the park.  ( 12 min )

Former president Franklin Pierce once had a home here, but the building was destroyed during the 1980s.  After the death of President Abraham Lincoln in 1865, an angry mob gathered here to demand an answer as to why Pierce was not flying an American flag in memoriam to the slain president.   There is a small granite marker detailing the significance of the site. All that is left of the home Pierce inhabited until his death in October of 1869, is two stone staircases to a vacant lot.  ( 13 min )

Almost unchanged since its completion in 1930, Kokudō Station is popular among enthusiasts of urban exploring areas outside of Tokyo, Japan, even though it remains in operation. Named after the Keihin Kokudō (today National Route 15), the station is served by Tsurumi Line and used by some 1,500 passengers daily. Getting off here, you'll find that the platforms are nothing unusual, but descend the steps into the dark, lonely concourse and walk into a world stuck in a different time. The arched corridor was once home to a lantern-lit shopping street, full of izakaya life, but the last of the underpass bars closed down in 2022. Today, the remains of the shops and eateries sit empty or have been boarded up. Some ghost signs have been left behind on the much-graffitied walls. The arcade has become a dusty ruin in a perpetual state of photogenic near-abandonment. At this murky tunnel's halfway, the underground corridor opens up into a narrow alleyway leading to the residential street outside. Only a few steps long, it's a jumbled-up confusion of veneer boards, corrugated plates, and bricks, plagued by a heavy layer of rust and vandalism here and there. Outside, up on the right-hand side of the western façade, you can also spot bullet holes left by the strafing gunfire from an Allied attack in 1945, a rare surviving example of World War II-era damage on the periphery of the Tokyo Metropolis. Unsurprisingly, the station boasts an eclectic filmography spanning decades, used as a location by a number of films and TV dramas. The most notable works are Akira Kurosawa's Stray Dog (1949) and Hirokazu Kore-eda's Maborosi (1995).  ( 14 min )

Bridge Music is the work of composer Joseph Bertolozzi, who recorded sounds of bridge surfaces (including the suspension ropes, railings, girders, and conduit) being hit with various mallets. The resulting 11-track album contains no sounds outside of what was recorded using the Mid-Hudson Bridge itself, a Hudson Valley suspension bridge in Poughkeepsie, New York. (Bertolozzi was actually born in Poughkeepsie.) The audio installation is experienced from listening stations that house 12 buttons (one for each track of the album and an additional composition called "Suite Poughkeepsie") on the north-facing side of the bridge's two towers. Originally intended to be a live performance piece, the sound-art installation was completed in 2009 as part of New York's 400th-anniversary observance of Henry Hudson's voyage up the Hudson River.  ( 14 min )

In 2010, a bizarre sculpture was unveiled in the Mansour district of Baghdad, Iraq. Designed by renowned sculptor Mohammed Ghani Hikmat, it depicts a muscular giant supporting a Sumerian-style cylinder seal, which is broken at the base and toppling, using all his five arms. When deciphered, the cuneiform on the cylinder seal reads "writing began here" in reference to the Mesopotamian civilization's role in the development of writing systems. Commissioned by the mayor of Baghdad, it was part of the city's attempt to improve its long-tarnished image, to promote the richness of Iraqi culture and history.  ( 13 min )

Surrounded by the wide open plains of eastern South Dakota, locals from the tiny town of Clark gather every year in early August for a spud celebration. The “Potato Days” tradition has persevered since 1992, eventually featuring the Little Miss and Mister Tater Tot Pageant, potato decorating, and most famously, instant mashed potato wrestling. On a hot August day in 2019, photographer Sol Neelman stood on the sidelines—still somehow drenched in instant potatoes—grinning wildly. He remembers being particularly impressed by the high school spud wrestlers. “Generally you don't get that level of experience and athleticism in a mashed potato ring,” he says. Ending a work day covered head to toe in instant mashed potatoes may not seem like a win for everyone, but for this “weird sports photo…  ( 20 min )

Bent low beneath a canopy of leathery green leaves in the sweltering heat of a Calabrian summer, Michele Cirelli is searching for a perfect fruit. Weaving his wrist through the inch-long thorns of his citrus trees, he picks out a good one—deep green and waxy. He takes it, gently, by its plump middle, careful not to damage its precious stem, and turns it slightly, so I might see how the light bounces off the knobbly ridges at its top. “This, this is the type the rabbis want,” he explains. A single one of these fruits, carefully harvested, can fetch more than $300 by the time it arrives in a shop in New York or Montreal. Yet the fruit may never be eaten at all. This is the cedro Diamante, an ancient citrus better known to many as the citron or etrog—a fruit packed with symbolic and histo…  ( 24 min )

From the Shakers—a 19th-century bunch of dissenting Quakers who made a mean lemon pie—to the Source Family—a 1970s Californian hippie cult with a celebrity-favorite vegetarian restaurant—to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS)—whose members abstain from alcohol but fully endorse indulging one’s sweet tooth—religious groups have been making their mark on American cuisine since the Pilgrims wandered onto Plymouth Rock. In her book, Holy Food: How Cults, Communes, and Religious Movements Influenced What We Eat — An American History, Christina Ward traces the way different belief systems have shaped our dietary preferences—whether we realize it or not. The Yogi Tea on supermarket shelves, for instance, is a product launched by Yogi Bhajan, a problematic, highly influential…  ( 25 min )

In Japanese, the word mahō means “magic” and typically refers to the Western concept of wizardry and witchcraft, as opposed to such words as majinai or jujutsu which are reserved for the more traditional, divination-or curse-based sorcery. So while the unusual name of Mahō Jinja in the city of Sōja translates to “magical shrine,” it is not actually a sanctum of sorcerers—though an atypical place of worship nonetheless. On a hilltop deep in the forest of Okayama Prefecture, a historic province known for its demon legends that inspired Japan’s most famous folk tale, the shrine sits all but forgotten, without even the torii arch or lion-dog statues found in most shrines. Mahō Shrine is dedicated to Mahō-sama, a local form of the legendary raccoon dog Kyūmō-danuki. Stowing away on a ship carrying Christian missionaries from the West, this demigod of ambiguous origin arrived in Japan in the late 16th century and settled down in the town not long after. Though the raccoon dog stole food from local shops to live off, he did not cause much trouble otherwise and promised the townsfolk he would protect their cattle and horses and forewarn them of fires and burglaries. In return, the townsfolk built the shrine to honor him. But how did he earn the epithet of “magic”? According to the historical texts in the local archives, this Mahō is a corruption of the name of a Buddhist goddess, Marici, with the hō “law, dharma” suffixed to it, unrelated to any magic.  ( 13 min )

On June 29, a local man was walking along the beach on the island of Khortytsia, in the southeastern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia, when he noticed what looked like a log half submerged in water. When he approached, he realized the log was part of a boat, one that was possibly centuries old. The man called wardens at the Khortytsia National Reserve, the large national park on the island. Soon the police arrived to cordon off the area, followed by engineers and archaeologists who started an operation to rescue the precious find. Less than a month earlier, an explosion had destroyed the Russian-controlled Kakhovka Dam, 125 miles downriver from Khortytsia. The waters rushed downstream, swelling the Dnipro River and eventually flooding a huge portion of the region. Dozens of villages were…  ( 21 min )

The Kappabashi Kitchen Town is a popular destination just off the historic district of Asakusa, another popular neighborhood in Tokyo. For over a century, it has been home to many shops specializing in kitchen supplies, growing bigger in the post-war era. Today, there are over 170 such shops in the area, dealing in every kind of kitchenware from traditional dishes to chef uniforms, and vending machines to the world-famous food samples of Japan. Established in 1907, Niimi is one of the oldest companies based in Kappabashi, and its five-story building is considered an icon of the entire Kitchen Town, topped with a gigantic statue of a mustached chef officially named the "Jumbo Cook." The Jumbo Cook was installed in March 1982 when Niimi renovated its building, and stands  36 feet tall (11 meters). The company's unforgettable face has since spawned numerous urban legends, and according to the most popular (and ridiculous) rumor, it is actually a giant robot in disguise, the rest of its body hidden in the building, and will be activated when Tokyo faces a Godzilla-class danger. Some also believe that the colossal chef keeps a pigeon in each of his eyes. Zoom in to his face and you can see why: the irises are concave, and, inside them, white objects represent the light reflected in his eyes—and their shapes do resemble pigeons when seen from afar.  ( 13 min )

Congrats to my friends who got academic recognition at JSM last month, among whom Bin Yu for her 2023 COPSS Distinguished Achievement Award and Lectureship, Veronika Rockova for her Emerging Leader Award, Nancy Reid for her David R. Cox Foundations of Statistics Award, Malay Ghosh for his Deming Lecture, Andrew Gelman for his Monroe G. […]  ( 6 min )

Congrats to my friends who got academic recognition at JSM last month, among whom Bin Yu for her 2023 COPSS Distinguished Achievement Award and Lectureship, Veronika Rockova for her Emerging Leader Award, Nancy Reid for her David R. Cox Foundations of Statistics Award, Malay Ghosh for his Deming Lecture, Andrew Gelman for his Monroe G. […]  ( 6 min )

These Chilean onion empanadas have a savory onion filling wrapped in a flaky empanada crust  ( 21 min )

Soup and pasta come together in these ten simple and nourishing pasta soup recipes that will warm you up and leave you feeling satisfied.  ( 13 min )

Four of our favorite coffee and espresso makers are 20% off for a limited time.  ( 13 min )

A new editor’s note in Nature highlights concerns about a paper by Google researchers who claimed computer chips designed in just a few hours using artificial intelligence beat chip plans that human experts took months to develop. In the note, published September 20, the journal stated: Readers are alerted that the performance claims in this … Continue reading Nature flags doubts over Google AI study, pulls commentary  ( 8 min )

I work with lots of environmental time series data from stationary instruments. This post describes why you should avoid mixing data and metadata in a single file and instead suggests an easy-to-implement, easy-to-use, maximally compact format consisting of two .csv files linked by unique identifiers. EPA Air Quality System The ... Continue reading: How NOT to format time series data  ( 9 min )

Introduction Continue reading: Mastering Data Visualization with ggplot2: A Guide to Using facet_grid()  ( 6 min )

If you didn’t read or if you don’t remember my post Continue reading: Implicitization for the spherical trochoid  ( 7 min )

This post has been cross-posted on the R-hub blog, and the R-hub blog maintainers have contributed to the review and improvement of this post. Continue reading: System Dependencies in R Packages & Automatic Testing  ( 10 min )

As part of our multilingual publishing project, and with funding from the R Consortium, we’ve worked on the R package babeldown for translating Markdown-based content using the DeepL API. Motivation Continue reading: How to Translate a Hugo Blog Post with Babeldown  ( 29 min )

This post has been cross-posted on the Epiverse-TRACE blog. Continue reading: System Dependencies in R Packages & Automatic Testing  ( 37 min )

I’m in the middle of a perfect storm, winding down three randomized clinical trials (RCTs), with patient recruitment long finished and data collection all wrapped up. This means a lot of data analysis, presentation prep, and paper writing (and not so much blogging). One common (and not so glamorous) ... Continue reading: Creating a nice looking Table 1 with standardized mean differences  ( 35 min )

Recent article in Scientific American: This Ancient Language Has the Only Grammar Based Entirely on the Human Body An endangered language family suggests that early humans used their bodies as a model for reality By Anvita Abbi on June 1, 2023 From just a small handful of Andaman Islanders, the last speakers of their languages, […]  ( 12 min )

Many LL readers are familiar with the archeological site of Boğazköy-Hattusha in north-central Turkey, which was the capital of the Hittite Empire and the place where the Hittite Royal Archives (17th-13th c. BC) were discovered, making it the oldest historically attested Indo-European language (scattered Hittite words in Akkadian documents stretch back to the 20th c. […]  ( 13 min )

A prolific author shares his unique writing system that generates quality books in mere months Continue reading on The Writing Cooperative »  ( 8 min )

Part 1 of writing the character wound/ghost Continue reading on The Writing Cooperative »  ( 8 min )

Continue reading on The Writing Cooperative »  ( 8 min )

Here’s why the CDC is so concerned about deadly flesh-eating bacteria and ways to avoid being infected

Human scent signatures could one day be collected at places like crime scenes and COVID testing sites

Governments must “separate climate from geopolitics” and work together to triple renewables and deeply cut planet-warming emissions, says International Energy Agency executive director Fatih Birol

Astronomers have a new term to describe the pain associated with the loss of access to dark skies: noctalgia

Lessons from past eras when Earth was a hothouse or a snowball tell us whether we are doomed by climate change or still have time to prevent that fate

We need to figure out if there is a constitutional right to compute

Phonics may be a popular way to teach reading, but it fails too many children

A Q&A with Hannah Larson, a recipient of the 2024 Maryam Mirzakhani New Frontiers Prize

The program supports “outstanding theoretical scientists.”  ( 8 min )

Plus: Lower Sioux Indian community pioneers new eco-friendly building technique; union members across Minnesota rally in solidarity with United Auto Workers; local breweries are back to pre-pandemic on-site sales; and more.  ( 6 min )

In Part III of our one-on-one with Chris Finch we focus on the Wolves defense, honing in particularly on the pros and cons of playing Gobert up in coverage more often.  ( 29 min )

With council elections coming up in November, MinnPost asked each candidate where they stood on “rent stabilization.” Here’s how they responded.  ( 15 min )

Fifteen years after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, Wall Street is as predatory as ever. But a more democratic economy could be rising all around us.  ( 11 min )

The four cannabis stores, which opened after the passage of a 2016 ballot measure, have changed the fortunes of a town that made repeated losing bets on other commodities before finally hitting the jackpot with marijuana.  ( 20 min )

"I felt I could make a journey with these musicians that would make a big difference in my life, and my devotion in my life is music. So I have no time to waste."  ( 21 min )

It was rising crime on platforms and vehicles that led the Legislature to change how Metro Transit deals with safety in part by shifting fare enforcement from cops to civilians.  ( 20 min )

Plus: Duluth Entertainment Convention Center asking city for line of credit; the growing need for mental health counselors for Minnesota students; MPR's Mike Mulcahy retiring after 40 years; and more.  ( 7 min )

Also Citadel Securities and naked short selling, robot junior bankers, ESG shorting, greenwashing, Jon Corzine and SBF.  ( 2 min )

1. The Reversal Curse (LLMs). 2. Crows use statistical logic. 3. The AI skeptics are starting to go a little quiet. 4. The crisis in UK universities (WSJ). 5. The wisdom of Larry Summers, recommended.  YouTube here. 6. US capital is depreciating faster. The post Tuesday assorted links appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         Comments In reply to Sman. His main points in that article is that we ... by sxb #2 Crows are natural probabilists? No wonder they're annoying. by skyzyks In reply to mkt42. One sad byproduct of the funding crisis is ... by Nancy In reply to Some Toronto Guy. Fewer professors need fewer ... by Dismalist In reply to Hazel Meade. Maybe government should raise ... by lol Plus 10 more...  ( 6 min )

I will be doing a Conversation with him.  Patrick is a phenomenon of the modern age.  He writes the excellent Bits About Money, which focuses on money, banking, payments, and more. His blog is Kalzumeus.  He has lived most of his adult life in Japan, and has many excellent posts about Japan.  Here are his […] The post What should I ask Patrick McKenzie? appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         Comments What is the current sector/market where Patrick thinks ... by Sam Roland In reply to jimmy. Also, what does this mean? “Most ... by jimmy In reply to myst_05. “the sense that at the end of the day ... by Aladdin In reply to hnau. I also think he sounds much older now. The ... by KarterB What are the rest of us doing wrong when interacting with ... by jimmy Plus 10 more... Related Stories EU May Ban Payments for Milk, Sperm and Blood Regulation is the Friend of the Incumbent! From my email (on single-parent families)  ( 6 min )

I take it this is good news?  Or will it arrive too slowly? The interest rate has been falling for centuries.  a process of natural selection that leads to increasing societal patience is key to explaining this decline.  Three observations support this mechanism: patience varies across individuals, is inter-generationally persistent, and is positively related to […] The post Selection, Patience, and the Interest Rate appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         Comments In reply to Sure. >the rise of the (Christian) Nation-State ... by OldCurmudgeon In reply to M. To clarify, we might “lose nothing” (or ... by Formerly K In reply to You're sucking it babe. I wish by I’m so in love with you In reply to I’m so in love with you. Aren't you? by You're sucking it babe In reply to M. *parentally not paternally by M Plus 10 more...  ( 6 min )

I won’t do double indentation, but this is all from Rick from Baltimore: “In your post today, you cite to an interview you gave in which you describe the negative effects of children growing up with one parent and state that “I don’t have a magic wand to wave to make all those men worthy […] The post From my email (on single-parent families) appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         Comments In reply to theshy. >I like #6 even though I am not ... by OldCurmudgeon In reply to EdR. Because they're the only ones willing to put ... by Colin C In reply to blue jay. The problem with your proposal is ... by Colin C In reply to Hazel Meade. One thing in all of this is that ... by Anonymous Opinion In reply to rsm. I'm very sorry about your losses, and I wish ... by Colin C Plus 10 more... Related Stories What should I ask Patrick McKenzie? Trends for 12th graders School choice for North Carolina  ( 8 min )

The students in my class on applied regression and causal inference are required to contribute to a shared online document. Before each class, every student needs to enter something in the document, either a question on the reading/homework or a … Continue reading →  ( 13 min )

We had a fun discussion the other day after my talk in London on statistics teaching. One question that arose was how our classes should change in reaction to the new chatbots that can write essays and answer homework questions. … Continue reading →  ( 18 min )

There are more, but I have to work on writing some other things.  More soon....  It's been a very busy time, hence my lower posting frequency.  It was rather intense trying to attend both the and the morning sessions of the DOE experimental condensed matter PI meeting (pdf of agenda ).  A few quick highlights that I thought were interesting:KITP conferencehere of the form AV3Sb5 are very complicated.  In these materials, in the - plane the V atoms form a  (before that one reader corrects me, I know that this is not formally a lattice from the crystallographic point of view, just using the term colloquially).  Band structure calculations show that there are rather flat bands (for an explanation, ) near the Fermi level, and there are , , , etc.  These materials have nontrivial electronic…  ( 10 min )

Wordsmith Games [tdjones] Have fun!  ( 1 min )

For millennia, lakes in Greenland’s tundra have locked up vast stores of carbon in their sediment. But as the Arctic becomes warmer and wetter, scientists believe these lakes could be turning into sources of carbon, which would have important consequences for the world’s climate.  ( 15 min )

A good philosophy of science should make you a better academic writer. In fact, a healthy approach to academic writing probably depends on having an adequate philosophy of what science is. After all, you are writing down what you know for the purpose of discussing it with other knowledgeable people. Before you can do that, … Continue reading Philosophy of Science →  ( 5 min )

In reply to Mark. (which of course means that (i⁎𝓕)_q is a singleton set, the terminal object of Set)  ( 14 min )

On p. 94, Exercise 2.7.H(a), I believe the stalk (i⁎𝓕)_q should be 𝓕(∅), not ∅.  ( 14 min )

CW: the Omnipresent Okidanokh, the sacred 'vznooshlitzval,' aieioiuoa

...

Visit the post for more.  ( 6 min )

Writing, like all other art forms, is an outlet for the spirit. Continue reading on The Writing Cooperative »  ( 8 min )

What it means to be a writer — and a human Continue reading on The Writing Cooperative »  ( 8 min )

Insights I wish I had known when I started Continue reading on The Writing Cooperative »  ( 8 min )

If you primarily consider yourself a “blogger,” you’ve got to level up Continue reading on The Writing Cooperative »  ( 8 min )

Wind turbines threaten several bat species, but the Biden administration is funding research to reduce casualties

Astronomers have spotted a gigantic void they believe to be a baryon acoustic oscillation — a relic from when the universe was a fiery plasma soup

Space is famously silent, but astronomers and musicians are increasingly turning astronomical data into sound as a way to make discoveries and inspire people who are blind or visually impaired.

Physicists and philosophers recently met to debate a theory of consciousness called panpsychism

Despite stereotypes, many autistic people yearn for meaningful relationships, but they are daunted by neurotypicals’ assumptions about them

Physicist John Cardy and his colleague just won the 2024 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics. We spoke with Cardy about conformal field theory, 2D black holes and coffee filters

The RSV vaccine is the latest in a series of immunizations that could protect pregnant people and their babies from severe disease and death

Co-directors Youssef Marzouk and Nicolas Hadjiconstantinou describe how the standalone degree aims to train students in cross-cutting aspects of computational science and engineering.  ( 9 min )

Sixteen professors join the departments of Biology; Chemistry; Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences; Mathematics; and Physics.  ( 14 min )

Bun bo hue is a spicy, flavorful noodle soup from Hue, a city in the central region of Vietnam. This recipe simmers meat and bones in broth to tenderize the meat and deepen the broth's flavor.  ( 21 min )

We’ve recommended the OXO kitchen scale for the past five years and it’s a staple in the Serious Eats test kitchen and in our homes.  ( 14 min )

Plus: Rep. Dean Phillips reconsiders challenging President Biden; Vineeta Sawkar interviews Erin DuPree; former Minnesota secretary of state Arlen Erdahl dies; and more.  ( 6 min )

The DFL governor answered questions Saturday about the presidential race, a controversy over school resource officers and more in an interview at the MinnPost Festival.  ( 18 min )

SixSpeed is sponsoring Little Free “Reviveries,” to be supplied with 40 doses of nasal naloxone at various Twin Cities locations.  ( 12 min )

Reports from the Department of Revenue show that 842 businesses paid $771,514 in cannabis taxes in August.  ( 12 min )

The Great Seal of Minnesota was created by men who tied their fortunes to the progress (as they defined it) and settlement of the state, often at the expense of Native Americans.  ( 11 min )

Living in a compact city reduces vehicles miles traveled (VMT). This is because people can choose to walk, bike or take the bus rather than be forced by the built environment to drive. VMT is the primary cause of air pollution.  ( 13 min )

After crisis treatment, clients can stay for longer-term intensive treatment at People Incorporated's Chicago Avenue program.  ( 18 min )

Plus: Minnesotans have killed 790 deer with crossbows; U.S. health officials recommend vaccine to protect newborns from lung infections; Minnesota Girl Scout pushes for caregiver mark on driver’s licenses; and more.  ( 9 min )

It is hard to say when the Sorginetxe was first discovered, but the dolmen in northern Spain has been known for a long time. It is a relatively simple stone structure, a polygonal chamber made up of six interlinked slabs with a seventh that forms a ceiling. It currently has no passageway or covering barrow, though this does not mean that it has always been that way. The name Sorginetxe means "witch's house" in Basque, and is derived from a folk legend according to which it was built by witches who brought the stones down from the Sierra de Entzia Mountains by night on the distaffs of their spinning wheels. Other legends say that the witches lived at Fuente de Lezao in Eguileor, by the cave of the same name, and that they came to the dolmen to comb their hair. The oldest known description of the structure dates back to 1833. Sorginetxe was partially excavated in 1890 by Julián de Apraiz, who found human remains and a barbed and tanged arrowhead. These finds have since disappeared. In 1913 it was purchased by the Provincial Council of Alava to ensure its conservation.  ( 13 min )

THIS ARTICLE IS ADAPTED FROM THE SEPTEMBER 23, 2023, EDITION OF GASTRO OBSCURA’S FAVORITE THINGS NEWSLETTER. YOU CAN SIGN UP HERE. I drank iced, frothy tejate for the first time last summer, at a market in Oaxaca, Mexico. Refreshing and lightly sweet, it reminded me of a chocolate protein shake. Tejate does contain cacao nibs, along with dry corn and pixtle, the seed kernels of the mamey sapote fruit. These are toasted and ground together with the fragrant flowers of a different plant called flor de cacao, then mixed with water to produce the beverage, which has ancient pre-Colombian roots. Inside each mamey, a single large, dark pit nestles against the creamy orange flesh. When I found mamey at my local grocery store in NYC a few weeks ago, I saved the pits, hoping to make my own teja…  ( 23 min )

Before Bisbee, Arizona became a center for the arts it was a mining town, and its history still permeates and scars the landscape. The most visible legacy of Bisbee’s copper mining history is the Lavender Pit, visible from an overlook on the route between Bisbee and Historic Lowell. The name of the pit may conjure up a beautiful sunset and shades of sandstone, but the pit is actually named for mining bigwig Harrison M. Lavender. Lavender was an engineer who rose through the ranks of the Calumet & Arizona Mining Co., which was acquired by the Phelps Dodge Corp., the company that owned Bisbee’s Copper Queen mines. Lavender believed that open-pit mining was the answer to getting more copper ore from Bisbee’s low-grade rock, replacing the existing Sacramento Hill mine. The pit mine opened in 1950. Sadly, Lavender was already dying at this point. He passed away in 1952, and the pit mine was named in his honor. The pit remained in operation through 1974.It produced more than 600,000 tons of copper, and its expansion led to the demolition of Lowell’s residential district, turning its commercial area into an eerie ghost town. Most notably, it was the home of “Bisbee blue,” a form of uniquely high-quality turquoise. In 1972, Bob Matthews was given a lease to mine turquoise and mined nearly 2,000 pounds by 1974. By then, world copper prices had crashed, and Bisbee’s low-quality copper was an early casualty. Phelps Dodge left, the mines were scuttled and closed, and Bisbee was left for dead before reinventing itself years later. Today, the Lavender Pit is a popular tourist attraction for those headed to the border. Its turquoise remains rare, and is found in high-end galleries and mimicked in stores throughout town. Visitors to the overlook will be able to observe the pit and read interpretive signage explaining the history of the pit, and the meaning of the red, gray, yellow, and yes, lavender layers of rock that are now forever exposed to nature.  ( 13 min )

Originally a bookbinder from Chicago, Emil Meininger moved to Colorado after losing everything in the Great Chicago Fire. He opened the first art supply store in Denver, H. R. Meininger Co., in 1881. Meininger sold art supplies to and befriended Frederic Remington and Charles M. Russell. With the expansion of the Fine Arts Department by later generation Meininger's, by 1986, the store had become the largest art supply store west of the Mississippi. In its current location since 1993, H. R. Meininger Co. has had everyone visit from Dwight D. Eisenhower to Daniel Sprick.  Still family-owned and operated to this day, guests can visit the 7,000-square-foot store in Denver, which not only sells art supplies and inspiration but is also filled with artwork, history, and cases full of antique and unique art supplies.  ( 13 min )

Along Route 299 in the township of Kanna stands a wall of mountain cliff known as the Sazanami-iwa (“ripple rock”). Discovered in 1953 during the construction of a road, it was initially believed to be just that—a rock with ancient ripple marks; but it later turned out to be something much more. Often referred to as the “ripple marks of Sebayashi” after the former village it is located in, the rock was thoroughly researched by Gunma University upon its discovery. When its team of academics made a report, it mentioned “strange holes” alongside the ripple marks. Later, in 1960, the “holes” were identified as dinosaur footprints, the first fossil track to be found in Japan. As it turned out, there were over 50 of them here. The new report attracted curious tourists to the site despite its remote location, receiving 30,000 visitors that year. Following this, Kanna started to brand itself as a “dinosaur kingdom,” opening a museum called the Kanna Dinosaur Center in 1987, exhibiting local fossils and Mongolian dinosaurs. Notably, it’s also home to specimens of the Sanchūryū, a previously unknown and understudied species of Gallimimus. Though the museum’s collection is rather impressive, the “dinosaur kingdom” of Kanna remains an obscure destination due to its difficult accessibility. From the nearest bus stop, it takes about an hour by foot to get to the Sebayashi ripple marks.  ( 13 min )

You’ve just been invited to a dinner party in third-century Rome. It’s going to be a swanky affair with high-profile guests, and you’re determined to make a good impression. You’ve figured out your outfit and you’ve packed your spoon and napkin (Roman hosts did not provide these). There’s just one part of the evening that concerns you: conversation. The other guests will be well-traveled and well-read, especially in the Greek literature popular with Roman elites. What if you don’t get their references? What if you can’t think of anything clever to say, and you never get invited to another dinner? After a moment’s panic, you breathe a sigh of relief and head for your library. Your social success is assured; you’ve just remembered that you own a copy of Deipnosophistae. Written in Greek …  ( 26 min )

Step into the annals of history and explore the captivating journey of Chimopar, the venerable cornerstone of Romanian chemical ingenuity. Created in 1895 under the visionary leadership of General Eremia Grigorescu, Chimopar, also known as Dudești Chemical Enterprise, rises as a time-honored emblem of innovation. Its legacy, steeped in the alchemy of creation and destruction, harkens back to an era when it stood tall as a vital producer of gunpowder and specialized compounds. It is currently a large, abandoned complex of several buildings that eventually became bankrupt, turning into a ruin in outer Bucharest. The story is not without its tumultuous twists. Echoes of earthquakes and the resounding echoes of explosions, in 1904 and 1923 respectively, bear witness to the trials borne by this industrious bastion. Undeterred, it pressed forward, even as the Communist Regime cast its transformative shadow. The very fabric of Chimopar expanded under its influence, but the winds of change blew fiercely, ushering in the seismic shifts of 1989. As Romania's industrial landscape crumbled, Chimopar too fell victim to privatization in the 90s. It has since been left abandoned, explored by many who wish to see its old factory walls. Today, the factory's grounds offer a remarkable blend of contrasts, a canvas upon which history, art, and adventure converge. Once a hub of industrial fervor, it now beckons street artists and airsoft teams, calling upon hipsters and sports enthusiasts alike to use its space. In the symphony of decay and revival, a chorus of graffiti writers has given colour to the walls. With vibrant strokes, they have etched tales upon the slabs, each stroke an ode to the past's rewritten heartbeat. A magnetic allure draws many inquisitive adventurers captivated by the forgotten stories of Chimopar. The factory is worth a visit if you would like to understand both the history of the country and see something unique.  ( 13 min )

Located just three miles from the U.S.-Mexico border, Frontera Sculpture Oasis is a unique celebration of the Earth as envisioned by a singular artist working in the borderland near Columbus, New Mexico. This fascinating sculpture garden is the work of Taras Mychalewych, a German emigre raised in St. Paul, Minnesota. After wandering through New Mexico for four days after his car blew up in the midst of a cross-country drive, he decided to move there and build a sculpture garden. He describes the park as infused with feminine energy, derived from the Mother of God (or Prajñāpāramitā), and Mother Earth. The message appears to be a tribute and appreciation to nature, and perhaps a warning to those who have defiled it in the name of profit. The garden is nestled in the Chihuahuan desert, where agave and cholla mingle with the work. The oasis is explicitly inspired by the Watts Towers, and perhaps includes elements of other roadside outsider sculpture parks. Sculptural figures appear to be built out of scavenged or donated media, ranging from bricks to bottles. A makeshift biosphere mingles with sculptures crafted to mimic the shapes of the surrounding natural environment. A colorful display includes figures representing a regional mariachi band, welcoming people to the borderlands.  ( 13 min )

This article is from Hakai Magazine, an online publication about science and society in coastal ecosystems. Read more stories like this at hakaimagazine.com. He knew the missing skeleton was here. Somewhere. It was 2014, and Daniel Franklin, a forensic anthropologist at the University of Western Australia, was on Beacon Island, a tiny patch of land off Australia’s west coast. The remains he was looking for belonged to a traveler who, in 1628, boarded the Batavia, one of the most ill-fated ships in history. Franklin was pretty sure the skeleton was here because, in the 1960s, archaeologists had found a skull covered in heavy fractures in the same place. At the time, the rest of the individual—everything from the neck down—was trapped under the concrete floor of a fisherman’s hut. But …  ( 21 min )

Listen and subscribe on Stitcher, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and all major podcast apps. In this episode of The Atlas Obscura Podcast, we visit a community in rural central Virginia that has been testing an interesting premise for decades—that maybe three, or four, or more parental figures are even better than two. This episode is part of a collaboration we did with Freakonomics. You can find a larger episode on this topic here. Our podcast is an audio guide to the world’s wondrous, awe-inspiring, strange places. In under 15 minutes, we’ll take you to an incredible site, and along the way you’ll meet some fascinating people and hear their stories. Join us daily, Monday through Thursday, to explore a new wonder with cofounder Dylan Thuras and a neighborhood of Atlas Obscura reporters.  ( 13 min )

Atlas Obscura's weekly crossword comes to us from creator Stella Zawistowski and editor Laura Braunstein, members of Inkubator, which publishes crossword puzzles by women and nonbinary constructors. You can see more puzzles in their book, Inkubator Crosswords: 100 Audacious Puzzles from Women and Nonbinary Creators. You can solve the puzzle below, or download it in .pdf or .puz. Note that the links in the clues will take you to Atlas Obscura pages that may contain the answer. Happy solving!  ( 13 min )

An older lothario interferes in the lives of a young married couple, driving them apart as each maintains their own innocence.  ( 3 min )

1. “Decline in Independent Activity as a Cause of Decline in Children’s Mental Well-being.” 2. “We find that annual suicide attempts increased by 16%, or 5 attempts per 100k capita, after the enactment of [Polish] anti-LGBT statutes.” 3. Time preferences and food choice. 4. ChatGPT can now see, speak, and hear. 5. Tries to sound […] The post Monday assorted links appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         Comments In reply to mike. during rush hour that is by mike isn’t the traffic annoyance itself a successful congestion ... by mike In reply to Sure. You do realize that Denmark exists?? In ... by Cancelled for wongthink In reply to Ska. There are many examples of automated fare ... by RAD In reply to mkt42. I wish ChatGPT would just go away … by Turing Test Plus 10 more...  ( 6 min )

Lower-income people are more lonely Jiska Cohen-Mansfield did a literature review with Haim Hazan, Yaffa Lerman, and Vera Shalom of the statistical correlates of loneliness in older adults and found that being low-income is a strong correlate of loneliness. You see the same thing in surveys of middle-aged and elderly Portuguese people, in the Nova Scotia Quality of Life […] The post It is the poor who are lonely (on average) appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         Comments 《loneliness is associated with lower income and thus probably ... by rsm In reply to Naveen K. What if jobs were about actual ... by rsm In reply to CM. What about drugs? by rsm In reply to Moral Panic. I think it was Chetty who showed ... by Sure In reply to Flower People. The other thing is that being ... by Sure Plus 10 more... Related Stories The Productivity of Online Education Increases Trends for 12th graders Songs Sold for a Song  ( 7 min )

Teaching is a labor-intensive service industry for which it is difficult to increase productivity. Thus, the price of education rises over time, the Baumol effect. One of the reasons Tyler and I have put a lot of effort into online education is that it ties education to high productivity growth industries such as software and […] The post The Productivity of Online Education Increases appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         Comments In reply to Tom Meadowcroft. Even without interactive ... by joan In reply to Kaleberg. C'hat;G.P.T:5 by dearieme Increasing the cost of education is the GOAL. It isn't a side ... by notRover In reply to George Oh-Well. How is it doing that? It never ... by Mitch Berkson In reply to PHinton. If 29 out of 30 students in every ... by steve Plus 10 more... Related Stories Patience and educational achievement Modern Principles! It is the poor who are lonely (on average)  ( 6 min )

Percentage of 12th graders who have a driver’s license, who’ve ever tried alcohol, who ever go on dates, and who worked for pay at any point during the last school year. https://t.co/wBtK4YTIkX pic.twitter.com/LeGIA7wWMB — Steve Stewart-Williams (@SteveStuWill) September 23, 2023 The post Trends for 12th graders appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         Comments In reply to dan1111. “Is it true that opportunities to make ... by TWBC In reply to JWatts. Have you heard of graduated licensing? ... by James In reply to Kaleberg. How did Obama CREATE “Cheap-ass ... by notRover In reply to indoor camping. “not think driving is worth all ... by TWBC In reply to M. “Driving licence and alcohol is about ... by TWBC Plus 10 more... Related Stories Does GPT represent a triumph of WEIRD values? States with high (low) rates of reporter mental illness School choice for North Carolina  ( 6 min )

Gary Clyde Hufbauer and Eujin Jung report on what has worked and what has not: Industrial policy is making a comeback in the United States. It is more urgent than ever to understand how and whether industrial policy has worked to strengthen the US economy. This study analyzes and scores 18 US industrial policy episodes […] The post Scoring fifty years of industrial policy appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         Comments The only original and real impetus for the computing technology ... by zztop The report tends to look rather tightly at cause and effect. ... by Kaleberg In reply to Andao. Self restraint works against prosperity. ... by Kaleberg In reply to steve. Import protection performed fairly well in ... by Kaleberg In reply to Sure. Yeah, I was going to say that the original ... by Worley Plus 10 more...  ( 7 min )

Javier Orraca-Deatcu of the Southern California R User Group (SoCal RUG) highlighted his work at a health insurance company for quality of life improvements through data science models. He uses... Continue reading: Empowering Healthcare with R: Javier Orraca-Deatcu’s Journey from Finance to Predictive Health Models

Introduction Continue reading: Mastering Data Visualization with Pairs Plots in Base R

Having spent the past 12 months coding up an end-to-end model of an astrophysics experiment, with the sole aim of searching for an optimal solution for its design by use of stochastic gradient descent, I am the least qualified person to judge the aesthetic value of the results I am finally getting from it. Therefore it makes sense to ask you, dear reader, what you think of the eerily arcane geometries that the system is proposing. I do not think that to be a good judge you need to know the details of how the model is put together, but I will nevertheless make an attempt at brief you about it, just in case it makes a difference in your judgment. read more  ( 5 min )

At the end of last week I had a great conversation with Valentina Tardugno (NYU) and Phil Armitage (Flatiron) about how planets form. I spent the whole weekend thinking about it: If a few planets are forming in a proto-planetary disk, there are all sorts of interactions between the planets and the disk, and the planets and each other, and the disk with itself. You can think of this (at least) two different ways: You can think of planets which are interacting not just directly with one another, but also with a disk, and with each other as mediated by that disk. This is the planet-centric view. In this view, the planets are what you are tracking, and the disk is a latent object that makes the planets interact and evolve. Alternatively, you can think of the disk, with planets in it. In this disk-centric view, the planets are latent objects that modify the disk, creating gaps and spiral waves. Both views are legitimate, and both have interesting science questions. We will explore and see where to work. I am partial to the planet-centric view: I want to know where planetary systems come from!  ( 14 min )

In reply to Clemens. Another thing I noticed: In the proof of 6.21. (pp. 190-191) you invoke exercise 6.6.C. I assume that there should be the hypothesis that A is Noetherian as otherwise q need not be finitely generated.  ( 13 min )

pg 43, 1.4.8 the definition of filtered set says that any two elements should have a lower bound z, but z should be upper bound when contrasted with the filtered category definition. Otherwise filtered set is not a filtered as a category.  ( 13 min )

Olaf Zimmermann points to this article by Gerald Haeffel, which begins: Nearly 100% of the published studies in psychology confirm the initial hypothesis. This is an amazing accomplishment given the complexity of the human mind and human behaviour. Somehow, as … Continue reading →  ( 11 min )

Jill Lepore recently presented an illustrative example of how social media amplifies bad stuff ("The World According to Elon Musk's Grandfather", 9/19/2023): Walter Isaacson’s new biography of Musk […] only glancingly discusses Musk’s grandfather J. N. Haldeman, whom he presents as a risk-taking adventurer and whose politics he dismisses as “quirky.” In fact, Haldeman was […]  ( 16 min )

On September 12, Speaker Kevin McCarthy directed a GOP House committee to open a formal impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden. National political cartoonists responded immediately. The most repeated word was “evidence”: Especially its lack: The empty container/room repetition is almost as fun as two identically posed McCarthys reaching into the same visual metaphor: Or […]  ( 8 min )

Afghans raised children, went to work, and gave birth for two decades next to America’s vast military bases and burn pits, and their prolonged exposure to the air, soil, and water pollution continues to this day. Dealing with the consequences of the war’s contamination may take generations.  ( 50 min )

The first book of a Yale professor of Chinese history contains a “multitude of problems,” according to a no-holds-barred review published last month.   Uncertainty in the Empire of Routine: The Administrative Revolution of the Eighteenth-Century Qing State appeared last August from Harvard University Press. Its author, Maura Dykstra, is now an assistant professor of history … Continue reading Yale professor’s book ‘systematically misrepresents’ sources, review claims  ( 8 min )

Before we start, I’d like to thank ESA’s Mark McCaughrean who helped kick off this article by referring me to two key articles that lay out, in scientific terms, how global warming really works. I must also acknowledge this thread by Markus Deserno which opened my eyes in 2022 that global warming is more complicated than almost everyone thinks. And it turns out it is even more complicated than can fit in a thread.  ( 23 min )

Knowledgeable people are people who are able to know things. This means that they are able to conquer their ignorance. Obviously, you can’t conquer something that fills you with dread whenever you encounter it. So one of the things you often find in very accomplished scientists and scholars is a sanguine attitude about the things … Continue reading Ignorance →  ( 6 min )

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Team Ratings for Week 4 The basic method is described on my Department home page. Here are the team ratings prior to this week’s games, along with the ratings at the start of the season. Current Rating Rating at Season Start Difference Ireland 18.17 15.46 2.70 South Africa 17.89 16.35 1.50 New Zealand 17.23 16.32 […] RWC 2023 Predictions for Week 4 first appeared on Stats Chat.  ( 4 min )

Team Ratings for the Grand Final The basic method is described on my Department home page. Here are the team ratings prior to this week’s games, along with the ratings at the start of the season. Current Rating Rating at Season Start Difference Panthers 15.30 12.99 2.30 Broncos 8.50 -5.92 14.40 Storm 6.15 11.21 -5.10 […] NRL Predictions for the Grand Final first appeared on Stats Chat.  ( 4 min )

Team Ratings for Wednesday Game for Round 8 The basic method is described on my Department home page. Here are the team ratings prior to this week’s games, along with the ratings at the start of the season. Current Rating Rating at Season Start Difference Wellington 13.22 8.72 4.50 Canterbury 7.14 9.44 -2.30 North […] Bunnings NPC Predictions for Wednesday Game for Round 8 first appeared on Stats Chat.  ( 4 min )

“The algorithm can be made differentially private while remaining exact in the sense that its target distribution is the true posterior distribution conditioned on the private data (…) The main contribution of this paper arises from the simple  observation that the penalty algorithm has a built-in noise in its calculations which is not desirable in […]  ( 7 min )

“The algorithm can be made differentially private while remaining exact in the sense that its target distribution is the true posterior distribution conditioned on the private data (…) The main contribution of this paper arises from the simple  observation that the penalty algorithm has a built-in noise in its calculations which is not desirable in […]  ( 7 min )

How to spot warning signs that a client is not a good prospect Continue reading on The Writing Cooperative »  ( 8 min )

And help ensure you’re using possessive compounds correctly in your writing Continue reading on The Writing Cooperative »  ( 8 min )

Changing point of view is risky but can be deadly effective Continue reading on The Writing Cooperative »  ( 8 min )

By Rohit Krishnan, due out on Kindle October 25, very likely a good book for policymakers, I have just pre-ordered. The post *Building God: Demystifying AI for Decision Makers* appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         Comments Off topic but I just figured out why the Fed screwed up in the ... by Cancelled for wongthink “very likely a good book” … gotta luv this shameless ... by Marcus In reply to Anti-Gnostic. So this is the Golden Calf, 2023 ... by Rich Berger With advances in advanced general intelligence, and perhaps ... by Moral Panic As I've been saying, these people including Tyler are convinced ... by Anti-Gnostic Holy Science has decided to go ahead and drop any and all ... by Edward Burke Related Stories The best sentence I read today (so far) *Selective Breeding and the Birth of Philosophy* Does GPT represent a triumph of WEIRD values?  ( 6 min )

1. It does seem that Microsoft is going hard in on nuclear energy. 2. TC on single-parent families. 3. Zionism for Aboriginal Australians? 4. Erbarme dich. 5. Why don’t more women date short men?  Why exactly? The post Sunday assorted links appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         Comments In reply to Dinwar. I think I've figured out why you and I ... by Anti-Gnostic 1. A datacenter in NSW Australia would have had free ... by Crikey In reply to Eazy-E. “Yes, because a few groups seem to have ... by Dinwar In reply to Dinwar. I think I've figured out why we're ... by Anti-Gnostic In reply to Dinwar. Historically the punishments ... by Anti-Gnostic Plus 10 more...  ( 6 min )

“Robots can’t replace senior clerics, but they can be a trusted assistant that can help them issue a fatwa in five hours instead of 50 days,” said Mohammad Ghotbi, who heads a state-linked organisation in Qom that encourages the growth of technology businesses. And this follow-up: Ghotbi, who leads the Eshragh Creativity and Innovation House, […] The post The best sentence I read today (so far) appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         Comments the new yorky times criminal justice reform narrative just ... by yo are all straussians now In reply to Guled. I scent the faint perfume of a story from ... by Henk Bruinsma In reply to Equestrian. Go fuck yourself by Anonymous In reply to Rahul. You know $10 here, $2000 over there. I ... by Equestrian In reply to M. “What the acceptable error checking ... by Dinwar Plus 10 more... Related Stories Does an AI Pause make sense? IFOs *Selective Breeding and the Birth of Philosophy*  ( 6 min )

In our principles textbook, Modern Principles, Tyler and I discuss securitization and give the interesting example of music securitization with the picture at right (I’m pretty proud of the caption.) But what has happened to these big purchases of song portfolios? Ted Gioia runs the numbers and finds that the rock stars sold at the […] The post Songs Sold for a Song appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         Comments In reply to Faze. That also makes it bad example to use in a ... by joan I'd like to know if Modern Principles treats the 2008 housing ... by Anti-Gnostic In reply to rsm. No harm is done. Money is transferred from ... by Anti-Gnostic In reply to Anti-Gnostic. Is the only real harm that done to ... by rsm In reply to peri. Is this blog just cherry-picking at its ... by rsm Plus 10 more... Related Stories The Zero Sum Idea Trap Modern Principles! Robert Barro and Rachel McCleary to Heritage  ( 7 min )

That is the new book by Costin Alamariu, who also has self-identified as the very famous BAP.  It is a published version of his Yale doctoral dissertation on political theory.  It has been selling very well. It still comes across as a doctoral thesis, but I feel any reviewer should excuse the unusual modes of […] The post *Selective Breeding and the Birth of Philosophy* appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         Comments In reply to Vulcidian. Right. But when Galton came up with ... by Steve Sailer In reply to Tom T.. Right. I forgot that men are only ... by Sam This is clearly the kind of shallow “theory” work that can ... by Sid okey dokey don quixote which virtues are most lacking in ... by cornpopsrustyrazor In reply to Prester John. Musk is probably also not an ... by M Plus 10 more... Related Stories *The Origins of Woke* *How to Know a Person* The shaming of one-parent families  ( 9 min )

Yes, in short: Is GPT psychologically WEIRD? Using the World Values Survey and other psych measures, we seat GPT within a global perspective. The culturally more distant a place is from the US, the lower the correlation with GPT @MohammadAtari90 @blasi_lang @DorsaAmir pic.twitter.com/6sOZ8s6CiX — Joe Henrich (@JoHenrich) September 23, 2023 The post Does GPT represent a triumph of WEIRD values? appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         Comments In reply to Jakeem Madron. Might be some interesting to vary ... by M In reply to Matt. It's also a product of prompting. They ask ... by Jakeem Madron In reply to Tom T.. Crikey's claiming that economic ... by mkt42 In reply to Bill. A truly useful heuristic is that ParodyBill ... by RAD In reply to Matt. I'm gonna give you a Helpful Shortcut for ... by Bill Plus 10 more... Related Stories Patience and educational achievement The Rise of and Demand for Identity-Oriented Media Coverage *Building God: Demystifying AI for Decision Makers*  ( 6 min )

It turns out that studying the Forbes 400 is a great way to understand how the (American) rich have gotten richer. This is the first in series of posts in which I analyze the Forbes 400 archive. The post How the Rich Get Richer appeared first on Economics from the Top Down.  ( 12 min )

OSIRIS-REx—the first U.S. mission to attempt a sample return from a space rock—has successfully sent materials from asteroid Bennu back to Earth

People of color, more than other groups, live in neighborhoods prone to excess heat and the illnesses that go with it

Awarding Rosalind Franklin a Nobel Prize posthumously for her role in DNA discovery is the honorable—and scientific—thing to do

I’ve published two theorems; one was true and one turned out to be false. We would say the total number of theorems I’ve proved is 1, not 2 or 0. The false theorem doesn’t count as a theorem, not does … Continue reading →  ( 20 min )

Webgardens! ⇾ Astra’s Observatory tiny space ⇾ dimden's hotel ⇾ Only Wonder  ( 1 min )

Sweden brings more books and handwriting practice back to its tech-heavy schools Charlene Pele, AP (9/10/23) Accompanied by 10 photographs showing young children (3rd grade?) practicing handwriting. As young children went back to school across Sweden last month, many of their teachers were putting a new emphasis on printed books, quiet reading time and handwriting […]  ( 12 min )

It's clear that text-to-speech programs have gotten better and better over the past 60 years, technical details aside. The best current systems rarely make phrasing or letter-to-sound mistakes, and generally produce speech that sounds pretty natural on a phrase-by-phrase basis. (Though there's a lot of variation in quality, with some shockingly bad systems in common use.) […]  ( 11 min )

My dqrng package has some quite old issues, one is “More distribution functions” where I brought forward the idea to support additional distribution functions within dqrng, which currently only supports uniform, normal and exponential distributions.... Continue reading: Using dqrng as user-supplied RNG

Rite-Aid closed 60+ stores in 2021. They said they’d nuke over 1,000 of them over three years, back in 2022. And, they’re now about to close ~500 due to bankruptcy. FWIW Heyward Donigan, Former President and CEO — in 2023 — took home $1,043,713 in cash, $7,106,993 in equity, and $617,105 in “other” (total $8,767,811)... Continue reading → Continue reading: Tracking Rite-Aid Store Closures  ( 7 min )

So this tweet came across my feed. To save you going there it is about a selection exercise for a job for (I think) an IT start up, described proudly by its author as “insanely hard”; and the job is to find the radius of the brown circle in this ... Continue reading: Finding a circle in a chart by @ellis2013nz

In a 2014 post I argued for the “servant mission” as a solution to AI safety. The basic idea is that there are many AI agents each one of which has the mission of serving a particular person. I gave … Continue reading →  ( 8 min )

“We are interested in the question of how we can build differentially-private algorithms within the Bayesian framework. More precisely, we examine when the choice of prior is sufficient to guarantee differential privacy for decisions that are derived from the posterior distribution (…) we show that the Bayesian statistician’s choice of prior distribution ensures a base […]  ( 7 min )

“We are interested in the question of how we can build differentially-private algorithms within the Bayesian framework. More precisely, we examine when the choice of prior is sufficient to guarantee differential privacy for decisions that are derived from the posterior distribution (…) we show that the Bayesian statistician’s choice of prior distribution ensures a base […]  ( 7 min )

Write more, grow your audience and earn more Continue reading on The Writing Cooperative »  ( 8 min )

Manage your “eureka" moments with ease Continue reading on The Writing Cooperative »  ( 8 min )

At least 83% of Americans have had their confidential data shared with a company breached (see here and here). The list of most frequently implicated companies in the loss of confidential data makes for sobering reading. Reputable companies like Linkedin (Microsoft), Adobe, Dropbox, ... Read More »  ( 8 min )

Shared by John Rohsenow and David Cahill / Isham Cook: From Arthur Meursault (@emptymeursault) This is a trope with which we're intimately familiar. According to the Chinese government, of all peoples on earth, the Chinese people are unique in this regard, except that now, more and more, they are starting to hurt their own feelings, […]  ( 8 min )

The Large Language Model DistilBert is "a distilled version of BERT: smaller, faster, cheaper and lighter". A trained DistilBert model is available from Hugging Face, and recommended applications include "text classification", with the featured application being "sentiment analysis": And as with many similar applications, it's been noted that this version of "sentiment analysis" has picked […]  ( 9 min )

Today a reader asked me “Out of the quantum fields which have mass, do any of them also have weight?” I thought other readers would be interested in my answer, so I’m putting it here. (Some of what is discussed below is covered in greater detail in my upcoming book.) Before we start, we need ... Read more  ( 14 min )

Recently Quanta magazine came out with an article explaining modular forms: • Jordana Cepelewicz, Behold modular forms, the ‘fifth fundamental operation’ of math, Quanta, 23 September 2023. It does a heroically good job. One big thing it doesn’t do is explain these funny looking ‘fundamental domains’ in the upper half-plane: That is: where does this […]  ( 10 min )

Check out my short article on the moduli space of acute triangles and the moduli space of elliptic curves!  ( 7 min )

I had two interactions today that made me think seriously about big-picture and design things. I like design language: How do you design your whole research program, and how do you design individual projects so they fit into it. One interaction was in the Astronomical Data Meeting at Flatiron, where Vivi Acquaviva (CUNY) talked about the intersection between what you are good at, what is important, and what brings you joy. That's a hard intersection to find. Or way too easy; I am not sure. The other interaction was a conversation with Jiayin Dong (Flatiron), who is thinking about faculty job applications and the like. How to talk about your research in terms of the next decade instead of the next year? One comment that is frequently made by Hans-Walter Rix (MPIA) is that he feels like most early-career (and even mid-career) people spend too much time their science and not enough time their science. It is important to be able to answer “why” questions about your research, and in the medium term it helps all your projects.doingplanning and justifying  ( 14 min )

1. The Dean Karlan plan for fixing USAID. 2. David Salle tutors an AI in how to make art (NYT). 3. Jellyfish evidence that “thinking/learning” goes on at the cellular level (NYT). 4. If the federal government shuts down, members of Congress still get paid though regular federal employees do not. 5. Rust Belt fact […] The post Saturday assorted links appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         Comments In reply to asdf. Those tend to be illegal (in the US) ... by Oldcurmudgeon In reply to JMK. Fwiw, US law also pushes everyone into that ... by Oldcurmudgeon #5 Interesting and worthwhile, but, methodologically, is ... by Thomas Hutcheson In reply to asdf. American unions are closed shops so a lot ... by Bobster In reply to DF. I can't help but think that Marx-inspired ... by JMK Plus 10 more...  ( 6 min )

In an excellent column, John Burn-Murdoch in the FT draws out some of the implications of zero-sum thinking,  based on the new NBER paper Zero-Sum Thinking and the Roots of U.S. Political Divides. Among the most striking Harvard findings was the discovery that there is a strong relationship between the extent to which someone is […] The post The Zero Sum Idea Trap appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         Comments In reply to KarlK. GDP growth was never 4%, thats a ... by Restless carrot In reply to OldCurmudgeon. Wealth can grow so there's enough ... by Neurotic In reply to Dino the Isaurian. Go fuck your wife asshole by Anonymous In reply to KarlK. A 6 point drop on a 100 point scale over ... by Rusty Robot Were taxes not extremely high in the post war period when ... by Wormbridge Plus 10 more... Related Stories Regulation is the Friend of the Incumbent! EU May Ban Payments for Milk, Sperm and Blood IFOs  ( 7 min )

Cara Fitzpatrick, The Death of Public School: How Conservatives Won the War Over Education in America, is quite a good and also objective book. Florian Illies, Love in a Time of Hate: Art and Passion in the Shadow of War.  Take the top Continental artists and thinkers of the 1920s, and write a book about […] The post What I’ve been reading, new books sent my way appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         Comments Regarding Leonhardt, there have been declinist books published ... by y81 In reply to Czech O Slovak. “Book reviewing tends to be a ... by EdR In reply to Horhe. “Harping on some abstract US right wing ... by EdR In reply to EdR. Correction: only one corporation in the top ... by EdR In reply to dan1111. 😂 It is laughable! The education ... by EdR Plus 10 more...  ( 7 min )

For youth below the age of eighteen: High: District of Columbia Alaska Arkansas Idaho Maine Montana New Hampshire (the highest) Low: Florida (least) Alabama Mississippi South Carolina New Jersey That is from Liu, Zhou, Cheng, and Vengeepuram, discussed earlier here.  Extra hat tip goes to Sean Geraghty. The post States with high (low) rates of reported mental illness appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         Comments Worst mental health: empty Best mental health: sunny by Anthrogeographical determinism? I'm also curious about what constitutes mental illness for the ... by Mark Bahner In reply to Dinwar. An estimated 34.5% (95% confidence ... by aaron In reply to H. The prevalence of symptoms varied across ... by Mr. Sunshine In reply to Peter D. I live in one of those states and my ... by Homeostatic Bro Plus 10 more... Related Stories Patience and educational achievement The Rise of and Demand for Identity-Oriented Media Coverage Pharmaceutical Externalities  ( 6 min )

There’s a reason why the 1970s continues to be regarded as one of the greatest eras for cinema. This transformative decade witnessed a seismic shift in the Hollywood ecosystem, marked by the rise of auteur-driven independent cinema and the dawn of multi-billion-dollar blockbuster franchises that still permeate our pop-culture 50 years on. In compiling this […]  ( 10 min )

Darwin’s personal account of his 1831 voyage around the world investigating the geology, botany, and zoology of various lands.  ( 2 min )

Recently Quanta magazine came out with an article explaining modular forms: • Jordana Cepelewicz, Behold modular forms, the ‘fifth fundamental operation’ of math, Quanta, 23 September 2023. It does a heroically good job. One big thing it doesn’t do is explain these funny looking ‘fundamental domains’ in the upper half-plane: That is: where does this […]  ( 10 min )

Science in meter and verse

In low- and middle-income nations, snakebite envenoming is more deadly than almost any other neglected tropical disease

The disease hits farmworkers and outdoor laborers disproportionately hard

An investigative report reveals that new spyware can slip in unseen through online ads—and there is currently no defense against it

Check out my short article on the moduli space of acute triangles and the moduli space of elliptic curves!  ( 7 min )

Part 1 Jonathan Falk points us to this parody article that has suggestions on how to p-hack. I replied that I continue to be bothered by the term “p-hacking.” Sometimes it applies very clearly (as in the work of Brian … Continue reading →  ( 15 min )

This is a follow-up to my post arguing that American political institutions, which were traditionally held to reduce polarization (and probably did), promote it given the conditions that prevail today (viz., parties that are  distinguished by ideology).  A new book by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt that makes the same general argument has been getting attention, so I thought I should say how my view differs from theirs.  Levitsky and Ziblatt say that the main problem is institutions that work against majority rule, like the Senate, the Electoral College, and gerrymandered congressional districts.  As Michelle Goldberg summarizes it "The Constitution’s countermajoritarian provisions, combined with profound geographic polarization, have locked us into a crisis of minority rule."  However…  ( 10 min )

Would you consider a donation to support Weekend Reads, and our daily work? The week at Retraction Watch featured: Our list of retracted or withdrawn COVID-19 papers is up to well over 350. There are now nearly 43,000 retractions in The Retraction Watch Database — which is now part of Crossref. The Retraction Watch Hijacked Journal Checker now contains 200 titles. … Continue reading Weekend reads: Who should pay for sleuthing?; the Gino retraction requests; university ‘halts projects over fraud investigation’  ( 8 min )

I won an award! Earlier this year I was lured to the NLUUG spring conference, and after my presentation (on machine learning from scratch), the two large presentation rooms were joined for some additional announcements. Turns out this was to give me an NLUUG Lifetime Achievement Award! Previous awardees include Piet Beertema, Guido van Rossum, Wietse Venema, Bram Moolenaar, Andy Tanenbaum, Wytze van der Raay, Teus Hagen, Michiel Leenaars, Olaf Kolkman and these are all awesome people who made massive contributions to the world and the Internet.  ( 1 min )

Erin DuPree has asked that Gov. Tim Walz withdraw her appointment to be the director of the Office of Cannabis Management after two news stories revealed that she had sold disallowed products in her Apple Valley hemp store and has a series of tax liens and unpaid debts from previous businesses.  ( 11 min )

Plus: 3M fined for selling products to an Iranian entity; judges rule rights weren’t violated when feds took Mike Lindell’s phone last year; lack of electronic recycling impacting pollution in Minnesota; and more.  ( 6 min )

Our Climate Action Framework focuses on building a future where Minnesota communities are prepared for extreme weather and can thrive in the face of climate challenges from flooding to wildfires.  ( 9 min )

The cynical Minneapolis 2040 lawsuit, filed following the 12-1 passage of Minneapolis’ most recent comprehensive plan, fits with a national trend of anti-urban activists abusing what ought to be useful environmental laws.  ( 17 min )

Plus: Responses to your questions and comments.  ( 20 min )

Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Alabama, has held up promotions of 300-plus military officers for six months.  ( 10 min )

Wolves coach Chris Finch addresses the importance of maximizing the team’s budding superstar, Anthony Edwards, and also gets into initial plans for how the frontcourt combinations might unfold during the season.  ( 24 min )

Plus: Feds requiring Minnesota to restart Medicaid coverage following glitch; St. Paul looking to curb gun violence with $13 million plan; family claims Minneapolis hospital didn't contact them for end-of-life decisions for relative; and more.  ( 10 min )

The other evening, I was listening to the French public radio (France Inter) while trying to micro-wave chutney out of green tomatoes and green crab apples found in my garden (I failed). The program was about a French art dealer, Giuliano Ruffini, who had sold several grand master paintings that later got resold at insane […]  ( 7 min )

When you’re a kid, sometimes it feels like your home is the center of the universe. Well, in Chanute, Kansas, one Google software engineer named Dan Webb had the wherewithal to actually make that happen, and in turn, the town recognized his achievement through one of America’s oddest murals. The story actually begins with the work of a different engineer, Brian McClendon, who was a co-founder of the company that eventually became the basis of Google Earth. McClendon was a Jayhawk through and through, and set the default location of Google Earth on PCs to center on his childhood home in Lawrence, Kansas, due to its relative proximity to the geographic center of the continental United States. Not to be outdone, Webb, a fellow Kansan who headed the Mac team, directed Google Earth to center instead on his hometown of Chanute. Ordinarily that’s where this anecdote would end, as it did in Lawrence, with an article in the paper and a cute Easter egg for aficionados. But Chanute took this claim to fame fiercely to heart, and created what may be the world’s most permanent screenshot. In 2010, the Chanute Area Chamber of Commerce commissioned a mural of the Google Earth display on Mac computers, and installed it in the center of the town’s busiest intersection. The map includes an outline of the United States of America, a giant star with Chanute, Kansas highlighted in the center, and a copyright verifying the screenshot. Of course, Google Earth has long since stopped defaulting to any single central location, and would not likely choose such an Amero-centric center point even if it did. However, the mural is still on display today, and banners displayed elsewhere in town make clear that Chanute is the center of Google Earth (on Mac computers). You can visit the mural when you’re in town, and if you’re not able to make it? Don’t worry. The mural is still visible on Google Earth.  ( 14 min )

"Music is found everywhere in Cuba," the guide said while climbing the stairs towards the entrance of Cueva del Indio, where an older gentlemen played the guitar. Past the entrance, there is a narrow trail curing around stalactite and stalagmites before coming to another set of stairs leading down to the water. A waiting boat takes visitors on a journey through the cave. The boat captain uses a laser pointer to point at a variety of geological features and their names as you head toward the back of the cave, before turning around and heading out to the parking lot area. Once outside of the caves, if it is tourist season, you will be met by a variety of performers and souvenir sellers.  ( 13 min )

Bee taxonomist Lincoln Best pulled a wooden box labeled “impressive bees” from the shelves that lined his lab at Oregon State University and carefully removed the cover. Inside, rows of shiny, green-blue bees filled the box’s inner compartments, each one pierced with a pin as if in a museum. They reflected the overhead fluorescent lights like jewels. “Osmia cobaltina,” Best says, plucking an amethyst-colored mason bee from the box. “It’s crazy, right? How can a bee be purple?” Native bees, such as this one, are responsible for pollinating three-quarters of all flowering plants. Tens of thousands of these intrepid indigenous pollinators can be found in almost every corner of the world, including Alaska and even the Arctic. An estimated 4,000 bees are native to the U.S. alone, according …  ( 28 min )

Nestled in the vibrant city of Jodhpur, Ghanta Ghar, the iconic clock tower, stands as a living testament to the city's rich history and culture. Built by Maharaja Sardar Singh in the 19th century, the tower has been an integral part of the city's bustling commercial hub and a timeless gathering place for locals and tourists alike. Its soaring structure, adorned with exquisite architectural details, exudes a majestic charm that captivates visitors and offers a glimpse into the royal past of Rajasthan. Surrounding the tower, the lively Sardar Market buzzes with colorful stalls, showcasing a kaleidoscope of handicrafts, textiles, and spices, creating a sensory experience that immerses visitors in the essence of Jodhpur's vibrant heritage. From the melodic chimes of the clock to the warm camaraderie among the locals, Ghanta Ghar continues to write its unique and engaging story, captivating the hearts of all who cross its path.  ( 14 min )

Somerset, Kentucky has long been considered a nexus of the unusual, the unexplained, and the otherworldly.  The mysterious phenomena that pervades this lakeside community in the foothills of Appalachia has been detailed in books, television, and film. Now Zach Bales, a teacher and paranormal investigator, has established Paranormal Roadtripper’s Nightmare Gallery in Somerset, Kentucky to highlight many of these legends. Bales has traveled the country collecting haunted objects like dolls, chandeliers, and whiskey bottles, along with movie memorabilia, Bigfoot imprints, and more. He built the museum in his own backyard. Their collection includes haunted objects, screen-used props and prop replicas from horror films, and exhibits related to Bigfoot, ghost hunting, Jack the Ripper, UFOs, and other unusual phenomena from Kentucky’s Bluegrass Triangle.  The Nightmare Gallery also has a one-of-a-kind gift shop, featuring curiosities from the canyonlands of Arizona to the swamplands of Louisiana, from the moors of England and Scotland to the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul, Turkey, many of which can’t be found anywhere else.  ( 13 min )

There are only 18 examples of ancient stelae surviving from Japan’s classical antiquity, which roughly corresponds to the Early Middle Ages of the West. Located in the city of Takasaki, the Three Stelae of Kōzuke are the oldest of Japan’s stone inscriptions. The Yamanoue Stele, the oldest of the three, has stood on a lonely hill since 681, from the Asuka period. It bears the oldest known example of an inscription written in Chinese characters and Japanese grammar. The andesite boulder is hardly worked, similar to the stelae of the Silla kingdom of Korea, and the calligraphic style seems to be a variation of the clerical script. The inscription is as follows: “I inscribe this on the third day of the tenth moon, in the Year of the Snake and Pig. Kurome-no-toji, granddaughter of Takemori-no-mikoto, who governed the Sano-Miyake domain; this is a dedication from Chōri-no-hōshi to his mother, who bore him after marrying Ōgo-no-omi, son of Niikawa-no-omi son of Tatami-no-sukune. A monk of Hōkō-ji.” Simply put, the stele was erected by the monk Chōri-no-hōshi in memorial of his late mother, Kurome-no-toji, perhaps after burying her in the adjacent tomb. Now known as the Yamanoue tumulus, this well-preserved burial mound was originally built in the mid-6th century to entomb some local prince. It was, however, not an uncommon practice to drag the buried lords out of their resting places to make room for another person; it has been theorized that that’s what happened with the burial of Kurome-no-toji. The tumulus is also a rare example of kofun, the ancient Japanese burial mound, as it is clear who is entombed and when it took place; most other sites do not provide such information. Together, the stele and the tumulus make for a fascinating trip of archaeological interest in an otherwise sleepy countryside.  ( 14 min )

The “Rock in the Road” is a landmark in McLouth, Kansas. This large boulder of very hard, pink Sioux quartzite sits in the middle of the intersection of South Granite Street and East Lucy Street. It was dragged by a glacier from distant outcrops in the upper Midwest and left behind as the ice melted thousands of years ago. This ancient glacial erratic is surrounded by asphalt because it was simpler to pave around the rock than move it.  ( 12 min )

The Memorial for Victims of the German Occupation stands at the southern end of Liberty Square. Built in 2014, it was meant to commemorate the Nazi takeover of Hungary that occurred on March 19, 1944. The memorial shows the archangel Gabriel, representing Hungary, being attacked by a Germanic eagle with the year 1944 on its ankle, set against a backdrop of broken columns. An inscription at the base of the monument reads, "In memory of the victims." Jewish groups have criticized the memorial as an attempt by Hungary's government to absolve themselves of responsibility for their complicity with the Holocaust. Some have said the monument sends a message that the Hungarians could do nothing to resist Nazi Germany and therefore are not to blame for the atrocities that occurred within Hungary.  Others criticized what they saw as an attempt to absolve the Horthy regime of blame for the terrors of WWII and the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Hungarians.  At the time of the memorial's construction, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán was accused of "falsifying the Holocaust" and "confusing the murderer and the victim."  It was considered so controversial from the announcement of its development to mark the 70th anniversary of the occupation that its installation was completed in the middle of the night. In Hungary, the Holocaust began years before the arrival of German soldiers, with pogroms, mass killings, deportations, and forced labor camps. Germany then got help from the Hungarian authorities in deporting 437,000 Jews in 1944. In front of the memorial, you will find photos and messages left by the families of those killed during this dark period of Hungarian history, making the memorial even more poignant.  ( 14 min )

Once a year—typically in the early summer, then occasionally again at the start of the fall—Welsh sheep farmers enlist the help of shearers and farmhands to help them for a special occasion: Shearing Day. In the midst of an arduous day of shearing sheep, the workers are rewarded with cups of tea, a spread of food, and cake. Shearing cake, or cacen gneifo (pronounced "c-ack-en guh-nigh-fo") in Welsh, was traditionally made to celebrate Shearing Day. A simple, buttery sponge, the cake was studded with heady caraway seed, lemon rind, and candied citrus peel, and finished with a dusting of confectioners’ sugar. While some older generations have nostalgic memories of baking it with family members, today many struggle to recollect shearing cake. But the tradition of the host farm providing l…  ( 23 min )

Baffins Pond is a small lake in East Portsmouth, it is bordered by a library, playground, and basketball court and is a nice place to relax and possibly walk your dog. The lake, home to plenty of ducks, geese, and swans, is also home to three islands in the middle of it. The quiet atmosphere of this small and tranquil nature reserve is not where you might expect to find an ongoing territorial dispute. In 2005, inspired by the stories of other micronations, local school teacher Louis Stephens started to look into his own micronation experiment. A local area, formerly known as Baffins Farm, which included a reasonably sized pond, was sold to the Portsmouth Council in 1938. However, the pond on this land was not specifically mentioned within the land sale (despite centuries of official docu…  ( 14 min )

In the 1920s, Tulsa, Oklahoma, booming with oil money, built a thriving central downtown of glimmering gold-hued Art Deco buildings unlike those seen anywhere in the American West. However, one of the most striking buildings of this era was not a skyscraper at all, but rather a gas station designed to resemble the Hagia Sophia. A century later, this structure remains the center of Tulsa’s arts and nightlife scene, and the symbol of this offbeat and hardscrabble prairie city’s cultural revival. The Blue Dome began its life as the White Star Service Station, designed by local architects Lawrence Blue and Fred L. Knoblock. The gas station was opened in January 1925 by Robert Chastain of Chastain Oil Co. At that time, it was Tulsa’s first full-service 24-hour filling station, with a service attendant who lived inside the dome. The next year, Route 66 opened, and the station's distinctive look made it a popular landmark until the route was adjusted in the early 1930s. In the 1950s, the gas station closed its doors. The Blue Dome became the home of Veterans Bar until 1999, and has also hosted an antique store and other business. Currently, the Blue Dome is in private hands, owned by Jo and Chris Armstrong of the neighboring Arnie’s Bar. Although it is no longer open to the public, the Blue Dome has lent its distinctive name and visage to the entire neighborhood, now known as the Blue Dome Historic District. The dome has hosted art festivals and pop-up shops, and the bars and shops in the area frequently reference its appearance. Street lights, planting pots, and other civic fixtures now bear the color and shape of the iconic dome.  ( 14 min )

In the Milwaukee suburb of Menomonee Falls off Highway 45 is Redner's Rescued Cat Figurine Mewseum, a private home collection of over 3,500 cat figurines and other feline memorabilia. Shawn Redner began collecting cat figurines in 2018, taking home whatever he could find in antique malls, rummage sales, and thrift stores. He acquired cat music boxes, cat cookie jars, cat plates, cat art—even cat-inspired furniture. Eventually, Redner's collection became substantial enough that he and his wife Hilary decided that they wanted to share it with the public, so in 2020 they opened their home one day a month where people could come visit. After the local news picked up what they were doing, the Redners began receiving massive donations of cat figurines from people all over the country. Each donation is labeled with who and where it's from. Now their collection has about 3,500 cat items on display, with about that amount in storage as well. Shawn and Hilary Redner are excited to show off the Mewseum to anyone who pays them a visit. Every room, wall, and space contains either cat figurines or something cat-related. They also have nine live cats complete with a custom-built outdoor enclosure to roam around. The Mewseum takes donations at the door. All proceeds go towards local cat rescues. The Redners' goal is to eventually move everything into a larger space and open a cat cafe with the entire collection displayed.  ( 13 min )

In the heart of Paris on 7 rue Méchain, an architectural marvel by Robert Mallet-Stevens emerges, a unique apartment building designed in 1928-1929. Crafted at the request of Jean Deschamps, it remains hidden behind an unassuming street facade, a treasure trove of Mallet-Stevens' signature design elements which include spatial harmonies, innovative angles, and panoramic rooftop terraces. Its windows are exquisite, just like the interior, if you are ever given the chance to enter it. Within its walls, the Polish artist Tamara de Lempicka found her creative haven. After moving to Paris in 1918, she embodied the Art Deco spirit with daring nudes and empowering portrayals of the modern woman. Her studio duplex apartment, a masterpiece itself, was home to her timeless works like The Sleeping Girl and Young Lady with Gloves. It occupied the second and third floors. While it is difficult to arrange a visit to the exact space she used as her atelier for 15 years, the building's interior called upon the collaboration of Louis Barrillet for stained glass, Jean Prouvé for metal railings, and the Atelier Jean Perzel for lighting, which makes this unassuming building absolutely stunning if you get the chance to even venture into the hallway. In short, 7 rue Méchain tells the tale of an architectural symphony intertwined with the vibrant spirit of an artist ahead of her time. The building itself is an example of Art Deco architecture and gives a sense of the dazzling 1930s life. Although unassuming and rather hidden, it's a brilliant sight to understand Paris' role as a major art and culture center in Europe.  ( 13 min )

Following the end of the Tokugawa shogunate and its strict isolationist policy, the Meiji era of Japan (1868-1912) saw rapid modernization as it opened its borders to the West. The new government was ready to present itself as a modern nation by the 1880s, hosting grand balls and elaborate banquets for foreign guests. The center of Japan’s Westernization is said to have been the Rokumeikan, an opulent two-story building completed in 1883. It was commissioned by Marquess Inoue Kaoru, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, and designed by British architect Josiah Conder. Meant to be a symbol of modernization, the Rokumeikan soon became known for its French-style parties and banquets, the envy of the commoners. The reactions to it were not all positive, however. Westerners were unimpressed and disappointed in its mediocre imitation of their culture while the Japanese conservatives considered it a place of outrageous debauchery. The so-called “Rokumeikan diplomacy” also failed to achieve Inoue’s desired goals of revising treaties in Japan’s favor, resulting in his resignation. The Rokumeikan era only lasted from 1883 to 1887, and its influences are greatly exaggerated. Other state guest houses of the period and their parties are often confused with those held at the Rokumeikan, further mythicizing its legacies. In reality, after all, it was meant for accommodation rather than for parties. From 1890 to 1927 it was used by the Peers’ Club and then by a military insurance company, before getting demolished in 1940. Nothing much remains today, except for the staircase and wallpaper preserved at the University of Tokyo’s Faculty of Engineering and the chandelier housed at Tōmyō-ji Temple in Hirai, Edogawa Ward. On the site, the main gate was preserved but was lost in the fires of World War II. Today, there is only an inconspicuous plaque marking the location of the legendary Rokumeikan, unnoticed in the hustle and bustle of the modern city.  ( 14 min )

What a weird place this planet is. But especially southern Illinois, according to this map of gravity anomalies across three Midwestern states. Gravity is what made the apple fall from a certain tree (in Woolsthorpe, Lincolnshire), causing Newton to wonder why it fell down straight. But the law of universal gravitation he formulated (and published in 1687) by way of explanation is a lot less uniform than you’d think. For gravity does vary across the earth, meaning Newton’s apple has a slightly different weight in various other parts of the world and falls at slightly different speeds. That’s due to a combination of four factors. Newton’s apple (and you) weigh 0.5% more at the poles than at the equator. First, there’s a latitudinal effect. The earth is not perfectly round:…  ( 17 min )

We don’t think much today about the world-altering power that maps once held. You probably have a detailed cartographic guide of almost every point on the planet within arms’ reach right now, and in most places, the GPS on your phone can nail your location on that mape within a few feet. But throughout history, maps—accurate, error-filled, intentionally misleading—have had a profound impact. And even today how we draw the world continues to shape our understanding of it—and have real consequences. Here's a selection from the Atlas Obscura archives of stories that illustrate the power of maps. The Cartographers Who Put Water Where It Didn’t Belong by Jessica Leigh Hester When plotting out their maps of North America, many 18th-century European cartographers relied on accounts that dri…  ( 18 min )

And how to use them to make your writing twinkle Continue reading on The Writing Cooperative »  ( 8 min )

3 lessons from a 5+ year beginner writer who blindly followed a piece of writing advice on consistency Continue reading on The Writing Cooperative »  ( 8 min )

The last month has greatly change what I see as the default future. Instead of seeing the last few centuries of exponential world growth continuing until a new much faster growth mode appears within a century or two, my default is now darker. The economy declines after population peaks in roughly thirty years, and innovation then grinds to a halt, with the economy not rising again until world population is dominated by Amish-

North Carolina’s budget for the new biennium would expand school choice across the state to an unprecedented level. The budget, slated for votes Thursday morning, would enlarge the piggybank for the Opportunity Scholarship Program — the state’s voucher that enables families to choose a private school education for their children — to $520 million by […] The post School choice for North Carolina appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         Comments In reply to Tom Meadowcroft. “Under the new budget, a ... by asdf In reply to Mirand. Yes, we have fun pushes for the ... by Bob In reply to Floccina. And it is not good for parents to ... by Exegete In reply to Exegete. I expect to see not much change but ... by Floccina In reply to Exegete. Low income per se is not the problem. ... by Engineer Plus 10 more... Related Stories Patience and educational achievement Modern Principles! My excellent Conversation with Lazarus Lake, ultra-marathons  ( 7 min )

Einstein believed that mentors are especially influential in a protégé’s intellectual development, yet the link between mentorship and protégé success remains a mystery. We marshaled genealogical data on nearly 40,000 scientists who published 1,167,518 papers in biomedicine, chemistry, math, or physics between 1960 and 2017 to investigate the relationship between mentorship and protégé achievement. In […] The post The importance of mentorship appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         Comments This paper deserves an award for using “protégé” instead ... by Ai In reply to Skynet. I recommend the “Wisdom from the Top” ... by Moral Panic In reply to Ray Lopez. Is this the real Ray Lopez!? If so, ... by Anon “Einstein believed that mentors are especially influential in ... by Chimela Caesar In reply to European Troll. Not like that was some big ... by Schumpeter Plus 10 more... Related Stories The Rise of and Demand for Identity-Oriented Media Coverage What Explains Educational Polarization Among White Voters? Zero-Sum Thinking and the Roots of U.S. Political Divides  ( 7 min )

1. Monkey Cage blog reincarnated as Good Authority. 2. Expert opinion cannot persuade people away from anti-price gouging policies. 3. Sam Enright notes on South India. 4. Erbarme dich. 5. Karnataka fact of the day: “Depression treatment does not significantly increase earnings, consumption, or human capital investment in children.” 6. Might your credit card rewards […] The post Friday assorted links appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         Comments In reply to Mitch Berkson. Depends on the social norm. Either ... by Sure In reply to OldCurmudgeon. The real world alternative is that ... by Sure In reply to Slocum. Yes, and? That waste is still a small ... by Sure In reply to Slocum. That is pretty much what refiguration and ... by Sure In reply to TGGP. The foreign policy article still tries to ... by Tom T. Plus 10 more...  ( 6 min )

That is the topic of my latest Bloomberg column, here is one excerpt: Economists have once again entered the fray, this time with a study that tries to determine how patience is correlated with better educational outcomes. The results are impressive, albeit unsettling. In Italy, differing degrees of patience account for two-thirds of the achievement variation across […] The post Patience and educational achievement appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         Comments In reply to BC. Even worse would be to try to promote these ... by Dave “The US data also show that patience matters much more for ... by skyzyks I'm having trouble understanding how educational attainment ... by Neurotic One thing that papers in this space never appear to model or ... by Interactions In reply to PHinton. Strategic. Relentless. Dogged. There is ... by RAD Plus 10 more... Related Stories The Rise of and Demand for Identity-Oriented Media Coverage Modern Principles! My excellent Conversation with Lazarus Lake, ultra-marathons  ( 7 min )

We tested nine of the highest-rated panini presses to find four that made crispy, melty sandwiches (and much more).  ( 34 min )

Quickly infused with the fragrance of lavender, this versatile syrup is perfect for cocktails and desserts.  ( 12 min )

A collection of three short plays by J. M. Synge.  ( 2 min )

Calculations determining the climate damage of greenhouse gas emissions—called the social cost of carbon—will be considered in federal agencies’ budgets, permitting decisions and, eventually, government purchases

These four researchers are highlighting environmental inequities and improving the health of their communities

Generative AI algorithms use probability to create visuals from noise

Human scientists—used to the benefits of a centralized, complex brain—have been underestimating what a simple nerve network can do

One researcher has been hiring planes to strafe the sky over the Amazon rain forest to collect the air coming off the trees, and what she is finding is cause for alarm.

AI is poised to revolutionize our understanding of animal communication

The most marginalized people are breathing the most polluted air, and improving it could improve health equity worldwide

The equinox is not when day and night have equal lengths. Instead it’s something more nuanced but no less glorious

HTML cleanup tool 📌 “An online tool that reduces HTML to basic tags and attributes. Removes scripts, CSS, and other non-basic elements like , , etc… Also, corrects errors and formats the HTML doc or a fragment.” IT Tools 📌 “...a free and open-source collection of handy online tools for developers & people working in IT” ExifTool 📌 “A command-line application and Perl library for reading and writing EXIF, GPS, IPTC, XMP, makernotes and other meta information in image, audio and video files. For Windows, MacOS, and Unix systems.” Regular Expression Analyser 📌 “This tool visualises regular expressions as both nondeterministic and deterministic finite automata...” The perfect drawing tool 📌 “The emotional rollercoaster I experience in art supply stores can be summarised in one word: greed.”  ( 2 min )

You can think of cause and effect as the ultimate story. The world is filled with one damn thing happening after another, but to make sense of it we organize it into a narrative: this happened first, and it caused that, which caused that. We tie this to “what if” stories, stories about things that […]  ( 11 min )

The non-negative reals can be defined as equivalence classes of nearly multiplicative sequences of natural numbers.  ( 7 min )

I got really lost with respect to research today. In almost all of my projects I am supposed to be mentoring postdocs and students. Today various blocks came up that interfered with that mentoring. And then I found that I had nothing sensible to work on! Of course that isn't true: I have literally a dozen projects in a mature state waiting on final work from me. But I couldn't figure out how to work on any of them. Research is hard. At the end of the day, Andy Casey (Monash) helped me out by giving me some very specific jobs to do.  ( 14 min )

This news article, “Anti-Affirmative Action Group Sues West Point Over Admissions Policy,” contained this amazing quote: “For most of its history, West Point has evaluated cadets based on merit and achievement,” the group said in its complaint, filed on Tuesday … Continue reading →  ( 20 min )

In "Voice-activated lights" (9/20/23), we saw how difficult it is even for native speakers of Modern Standard Mandarin to understand other varieties, and can be thankful to Zeyao Wu, who comes from the area where the topolect in the film is spoken, for kindly identifying and transcribing it for all of us. rit malors writes: […]  ( 9 min )

[This is a guest post by Martin Schwartz] The following is just an idle speculation for which I have no answer, but somehow I don't think mere coincidence is really a factor. A number of Old World languages of different groups show a word for 'dog' or a doglike beast of the type affricate/sibilant plus […]  ( 9 min )

The idea of the intangibility of that mental state in estimating the time is of the greatest importance. Why is it intangible? Isn’t it because we refuse to count what is tangible about our state as part of the specific state which we are postulating? Wittgenstein, PI§608 Many of the writers I work with think … Continue reading Intangible? →  ( 5 min )

The non-negative reals can be defined as equivalence classes of nearly multiplicative sequences of natural numbers.  ( 4 min )

The psychedelic drug MDMA, also known as ecstasy or molly, may be best known for its recreational use. But as journalist Rachel Nuwer chronicles in “I Feel Love,” it has also emerged as a potentially valuable therapeutic tool for a variety of medical conditions, including post-traumatic stress disorder.  ( 13 min )

Introduction Continue reading: Creating Confidence Intervals for a Linear Model in R Using Base R and the Iris Dataset

Dear rOpenSci friends, it’s time for our monthly news roundup! You can read this post on our blog. rOpenSci HQ WIP: WebAssembly support in R-universe! Continue reading: rOpenSci News Digest, September 2023  ( 32 min )

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Read [on the way back home (and during the following jet-lagged nights)] the Ninth Rain and its sequel the Bitter Twins, by Jen Williams, for which she won twice a British Fantasy Award. I am twice as surprised given that it is quite a poor series, with a simplistic approach to its world building, a […]  ( 7 min )

Read [on the way back home (and during the following jet-lagged nights)] the Ninth Rain and its sequel the Bitter Twins, by Jen Williams, for which she won twice a British Fantasy Award. I am twice as surprised given that it is quite a poor series, with a simplistic approach to its world building, a […]  ( 7 min )

I’m on the hook to do a SciML webinar next week: Bob Carpenter. Multiscale generalized Hamiltonian Monte Carlo with delayed rejection. SciML Webinar, 28 September, 2023. 11 am (Eastern US time). These are organized by Keith Phuthi (who is at … Continue reading →  ( 13 min )

A researcher who wishes to remain anonymous writes: I am writing with a question about your article with Imbens, Why High-Order Polynomials Should Not Be Used in Regression Discontinuity Designs. In it, you discourage the use of high-order polynomials of … Continue reading →  ( 13 min )

Audiobooks are booming. For memoirists, the barrier to entry is low, why not turn your book into a feast for the ears? Continue reading on The Writing Cooperative »  ( 8 min )

Is it a measure of writing skill or marketing skill? Continue reading on The Writing Cooperative »  ( 8 min )

“I'm gonna be standing on the corner, 12th Street and Vine.” These memorable lyrics were originally written by two teenagers who had never even visited Kansas City, but they have come to define Kansas City’s music scene and embody its spirit. Today, visitors can celebrate the lyrics of “Kansas City” at a humble municipal park that pays homage to the hit single. As early as 1910, 12th Street had become Kansas City’s entertainment thoroughfare. Over the next 50 years, jazz clubs, honky tonks, bars, and cafés boomed along the strip, even as segregation restricted the reach of Black business. In the 1930s, the legendary Reno Club was the home of Count Basie and his first orchestra, and nearby, Charlie Parker got his start and the sobriquet “Bird.” On 12th and Vine, the Orchid Room was the ho…  ( 16 min )

Saint Francis Xavier’s name is remembered throughout Asia, from India to Japan, where he was the first to introduce Christianity. Born in 1506 in the Kingdom of Navarre, he co-founded the Jesuit Order in 1540 with Ignatius of Loyola and traveled the world as a Catholic missionary. From 1545 to 1552, the missionary was based on and off in the port of Portuguese Malacca (Melaka), where there now stands a 19th-century church named after him as well as a statue commemorating his visit. He died from a fever while on the way to China, and his body was carried back to Malacca for a temporary burial, before being shipped to Goa, India, in 1553. The statue was erected in 1952 for the 400th anniversary of his last visit to Malacca. It stands in front of the hilltop ruins of St. Paul’s Church, where there is an open grave marking the site of Xavier’s temporary burial. An interesting feature of this statue is his missing right hand, an attribute absent in most artistic depictions of the saint. This is because he had all of his limbs intact during his life—his right forearm, which he used to bless and baptize his converts, was only amputated after his death. It is said that it still bled when it was cut off. While his (mostly) incorruptible body rests in permanent peace in Velha Goa, the detached right hand was sent to Rome in 1614 and remains in a silver reliquary at the Il Gesù church, and portions of the relic are also displayed in Macau and Sydney. Though that’s the story with his right hand, some locals and tour guides of Malacca have a different version to tell. They claim that the statue did once have both hands in fact, but was struck by lightning one day and lost the right hand, perhaps by divine intervention.  ( 14 min )

At the turn of the 20th century, amusement parks known as White Cities were built across the United States. These were also known as trolley parks, since they were located on the trolley line and trolleys were the main form of transportation to and from the parks. One of these parks, Lakeside Amusement Park, was built outside of Denver in 1908. Through good times and bad, Lakeside Amusement Park still stands and operates as it did over 100 years ago. Its crown jewel, the Tower of Jewels, no longer shines as brightly as it once did or even serves as the main entrance, but children of all ages can still have a fun time at the same park their great-great-grandparents may have enjoyed. A miniature railway can take you around Lake Rhoda for a scenic tour of Lakeside, Colorado. You may notice some abandoned or refurbished attractions. The entire park has been saved from the dustbin of history through some creative architectural salvage operations that have kept most, but not all of its rides operating.  ( 13 min )

On Friday, September 8, 1944, a German V2 missile launched from the Netherlands landed at this site on Staveley Road in Chiswick. Three people were killed in the blast, and 19 more injured in the powerful explosion, which left behind a crater measuring some 30 feet across. It was the first of more than 500 V2 rockets that would strike London between September 1944 and March 1945. Today, a small stone monument marks the site where the missile landed, and commemorates the lives that were lost in that and many other V2 missile attacks.  ( 13 min )

A few different legends surround this pond in Victoria Park. Most center on the rumor that the small body of water is bottomless, but others are about the name itself. One is that there was pirate treasure buried there, and an excavation to find it went so deep that they could barely see the sky. Then, as many know from digging too deep right next to a large body of water, the Gulf went pouring in from the side, making the pond that's there today. There are a couple of urban legends about someone being murdered and tossed into the pond, giving it its name. There was one about the pond connecting to a spirit who would pull any who got too close under the water, then spit their bodies back up as a warning. Beyond legends, there are also spotted salamanders around the pond.  ( 13 min )

This stone structure is planted at what feels like the end of the earth. It's moody. It’s a little spooky. It could be from a Mary Shelley novel. Rose Blanche Lighthouse is the only granite lighthouse remaining in Newfoundland. Its light has been guiding mariners since 1873. The trek to see it will take you through some of the most stunning ocean-side vistas and waterfalls.  ( 13 min )

Reprinted with permission from The Globe: How the Earth Became Round by James Hannam, published by Reaktion Books Ltd. Copyright © 2023 by James Hannam. All rights reserved. It was a big job, being emperor of China. He didn’t just have to run the country. The universe itself depended on him. He had a sizeable support staff of bureaucrats and eunuchs, but the buck stopped at the dragon throne. Dong Zhongshu (c. 175–105 BC), an adviser to Emperor Wu (156–87 BC), wanted to ensure his master understood the magnitude of his responsibilities. He explained that the emperor was the link between Heaven and Earth. If he ruled well, Heaven would support him by bestowing a clement climate and acquiescent population on China. However, if he violated the celestial order, for example by issuing judic…  ( 35 min )

Neptune's Staircase is composed of eight locks and is located on a stretch of the Caledonian Canal overlooked by an impressive range of mountains, including Ben Nevis.  A staircase lock is when two or more adjacent locks have the upper gate of one lock also serving as the lower gate of the next lock. Due to this design, once one boat has entered the staircase it has committed to going through all the locks. The structure was built between 1803 and 1822 by Thomas Telford. The project was also designed to provide jobs to residents of the Highlands. Each of the current lock gates weighs 22 tons. A team of at least three lock-keepers is needed to operate the staircase. The staircase usually operates on an efficient basis. The system was originally hand-powered but has been converted to hydraulic power. In the past, the locks were operated by capstans, each with four poles that made seven full revolutions to open and close each gate. Each gate was operated by two capstans, one to open and another to close. Transit times through the staircase have been reduced from just over half a day to 90 minutes with the conversion to hydraulic rams and push-button controls. Visitors can still see the plinths where the original capstans were anchored, but the capstans themselves have been removed.  ( 13 min )

Nestled amidst the hustle and bustle of modern New Jersey lies a hidden gem that defies time itself: the C. A. Nothnagle Log House. Picture this,  a rustic log cabin, standing proudly in the heart of a suburban neighborhood, like a historical time capsule plunked right in your backyard. Built around 1638, this house has seen it all—it is the oldest standing log cabin in the good United States.

Nestled along the vibrant tapestry of Calea Moşilor, an ancient trading artery in Neoclassical and Gothic Revival style, once linked Bucharest's Inner Town to the bustling Obor Marketplace. With tired palatial doors and a peeling facade in the present-day, the architectural gem whispers tales of bygone eras. This is none other than the Solacula Inn ("Hanul Solacoglu" in Romanian). Created in 1859, this structure bears witness to the fusion of local and Western influences, and once had luxury carriages entering and exiting through its two large gates. Symbolically situated along a street that boasts a lot of Belle Epoque architecture, a harmonious dance ensues between an opulent past met with a present that screams for renovation and maintenance. A tribute to its pioneering spirit, the …  ( 14 min )

Today, there are just five sand synagogues remaining in the world. Three of them are located in the Caribbean, on the islands of Curacao, Jamaica, and St. Thomas. One is in Suriname, and one is in the Netherlands, where the concept of a sand synagogue was first born. The Kingston sand floor synagogue in nestled into a quiet street in the bustling island capital. Visitors are welcome if they contact the synagogue in advance and receive permission. The wooden rows, perfectly groomed sand, and high ceilings are authentic to the island and Sephardic traditions. The Shaare Shalom Synagogue that stands today was built in 1912, after an earlier building at the site was damaged during the Kingston earthquake of 1907. But Jamaica's Jewish community has deep roots. The Spanish occupation of Jamaica lasted from 1494–1655, and during that time a number of Jewish settlers came to the island. Multiple synagogues were constructed across the island in the 17th century.  ( 13 min )

In Madrid, the city council finished removing phone booths in 2002, which coincided with the 50th anniversary of the television broadcast of the film "La cabina." The Madrid city council wanted to commemorate this moment by placing a replica of the cabin seen in the film in an area adjacent to the actual filming location.  La Cabina (The Phone Booth) is a 1972 television movie directed by Spanish director Antonio Mercero. When it first aired on Spanish television it became an instant success.  It not only went on to win the first-ever Emmy for a Spanish TV film, but it also became a breakthrough for Mercero, who later created other commercial hits with series such as Verano Azul or Farmacia de Guardia.  ( 13 min )

Located on St Mary’s churchyard wall in Ivinghoe is a long, imposing tool known as a thatch hook. This particular instrument was designed for the purpose of extinguishing thatched roof fires. For much of history, prior to the advent of firefighters, communities relied upon their neighbor's help to fight fires. This is where the thatch hook came into play, as it was used to drag the burning thatch from the roof of the cottage to prevent the fire from spreading. The huge hook required several individuals to wield it effectively. Beneath the thatch hook, there are two additional items on display. The first is a brass plaque commemorating the coronation of Edward VII in 1902, while the second is a "mantrap" used on private property to discourage intruders and poachers, a reminder of the harsh realities of life during the 18th century. Today, the thatch hook serves as a relic of the past, as there are no longer any thatched roofs in Ivinghoe. Nevertheless, it remains a fascinating artifact that offers a glimpse into the unique challenges faced by communities during a bygone era.  ( 13 min )

Listen and subscribe on Stitcher, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and all major podcast apps. In this episode of The Atlas Obscura Podcast, we visit Denmark’s Recreational Fear Lab, where researchers are studying the fun side of fear—using the country's largest haunted house as a field site. Our podcast is an audio guide to the world’s wondrous, awe-inspiring, strange places. In under 15 minutes, we’ll take you to an incredible site, and along the way you’ll meet some fascinating people and hear their stories. Join us daily, Monday through Thursday, to explore a new wonder with cofounder Dylan Thuras and a neighborhood of Atlas Obscura reporters.  ( 13 min )

Flódni is an elaborate, multi-layer cake consisting of four different fillings—first plum jam, then walnut, apple, and poppy seed—each between sheets of pastry. It might sound like the dessert version of Turducken, but this Hungarian-Jewish treat is no fleeting trend created as a social media–friendly novelty. The roots of flódni go back to medieval France and Germany. The word itself comes from the German fladen, a flat thin cake. According to a researcher at Tel Aviv University, the earliest reference to a Jewish flat cake also called fladen dates back to the 10th century. At that time, it was typically made with cheese. Today’s flódni, however, was developed by the Jews of the Carpathian Basin, who added more layers and fruit fillings. The labor-intensive dessert has been one of the…  ( 15 min )

This transformed World War II bunker is now a shrine dedicated to the victims of the war. The site was damaged by vandalism and closed to the public for some time. When restoration began, much of the shrine was damaged including significant flooding. Rubble and water were removed and the shell walls and artwork were painstakingly restored to its former glory using photos to guide the restoration team.  ( 13 min )

Researchers have adapted the AI network to search for genetic changes linked to ill health

United Nations secretary-general António Guterres is proposing a $500-billion annual stimulus package to meet the Sustainable Development Goals to preserve the environment and end poverty and hunger

Researchers publicly call out theory that they say is not well supported by science, but that gets undue attention

Jupiter’s mysterious moon Europa may hold carbon in the ocean lurking beneath its icy shell

Lillian Gilbreth pioneered time and motion efficiency in workplaces and revolutionized kitchen design

This summer’s floods, hurricanes and wildfires have prevented blood collection at a time when U.S. hospitals are already low on supply

Robert D. Bullard reflects on the movement he helped to create

A new study suggests that changes in the brain's sensitivity to insulin during phases of the menstrual cycle may be linked to appetite

New research shows any alcohol can harm your body, but the increased risk may not be huge

A new NASA instrument allows researchers to view the bright and permanently shadowed portions of the moon’s Shackleton Crater at the same time

A broad genetic study has revised the prevailing narrative about how wine grapes spread around the world

Black holes in the extraordinarily distant cosmos are out of tune with their host galaxies, offering insights into their formation

The U.S. has already seen a record number of disasters costing at least $1 billion in 2023, which underscores how unprepared the nation is to withstand climate-driven catastrophe

Hot cars are a health hazard for everyone on the road—and climate change could make things worse

Aconcagua - 6991 m If you like mountains, R and T-shirts, I got you covered. Here we use {elevatr} to get a DEM around some well known summits and make a map consisting only of isohypses. It produces (sometimes) very nice visualizations. Continue reading: Mountains

Election polls play a crucial role in predicting the outcome of elections and shaping public opinion. However, it’s important to understand that the results of any single poll should be taken with a grain of salt. Many polls only ask about 1,000 people about their political preferences, which is quite ... Continue reading: Confidence Intervals in Election Polling: Understanding the Uncertainty of Political Forecasting

(Photo by Erik Cats) Continue reading: The Super League: Tournament Blood Bowl online

Data acquisition Post-processing [view raw Summary: Prediction on large datasets can be time-consuming, but with enough Continue reading: Parallel raster processing in stars

Every culture has their idea of the perfect omelette—impeccably rolled with barely a hint of browning, folded over and stuffed to the brim, layered with creamy potatoes...the list goes on! Here's a collection of omelette recipes to satisfy every craving.  ( 15 min )

Smart kitchen gear (things that are app-connected) can help you cook more accurately and efficiently.  ( 27 min )

I'm not the first person to use that word, but I probably mean it in a distinctive way.  What I'm talking about is not the usual sort of earworm / öhrwurm [recte ohrwurm] that gets stuck in your brain and you just can't make it go away.  That's the usual kind, and I get it […]  ( 8 min )

I showed this mp4 video to a dozen native speakers of Sinitic languages (mostly Mandarin), but no one could identify, much less understand, what it was: https://i.imgur.com/MesyF9r.mp4   (from imgur) Chau Wu ruled out Taiwanese, Hakka, and Cantonese, but he said that he heard words that sounded like chú sī 廚司 ("chef") and chǎocài 炒菜 […]  ( 10 min )

Also Splunk trades, Credit Suisse AT1 claims, insider gambling, NFT prices and don’t put it in email.  ( 2 min )

Plus: Minnesota Supreme Court to hear Trump on ballot case; MDH states Stillwater Prison water complies with fed standards; drought covers more than a quarter of the state; Twins playoff tickets go on sale Friday; and more.

Plus: Composers and librettists reunite at Nautilus Music-Theater; "Inventadas" as part of Franconia's 27th Art & Artists Celebration; and Tia Keobounpheng's colorful threads.

Erin DuPree founded, and is vice president of sales and operation, for Loonacy Cannabis in Apple Valley.

In a sprawling interview that lasted more than an hour, Finch addresses the Gobert-KAT dynamic, the blossoming of Anthony Edwards into a charismatic All Star and how all the pieces might fit together during the 2023-24 Timberwolves season.

The incumbents seeking re-election support the 1% hike. The remaining candidates are split.

JeRonelle opens on Friday for the eccentric Durand Bernarr at the Fine Line.

Fifty years after the Time magazine cover story touting Minnesota as the nation’s model state, it’s time to reassess.

MinnPost Festival starts Friday!

When it comes to AI, we can’t afford the same wait-and-see approach many governments took to regulating social media.

Plus: Two young girls behind "concerning" calls to Edina schools; Faribault to allow public marijuana use; and more.

1. Claims about weddings.  And a romance (NYT). The post Thursday assorted love links appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         Comments In reply to y81. Ironically, my wife (the Stanford ... by Anon In reply to Hazel Meade. Let's be serious: Ukraine is ... by myth In reply to Anti-Gnostic. What are the odds that the Dems ... by dearieme In reply to Clay. I wonder. My impression is that the USA ... by dearieme In reply to bazza. I always considered the engagement ring to ... by Maybe I'm too cynical Plus 10 more...  ( 6 min )

While some assert that social identities have become more salient in American media coverage, existing evidence is largely anecdotal. An increased emphasis on social identities has important political implications, including for polarization and representation. We first document the rising salience of different social identities using NLP tools to analyze all tweets from 19 media outlets […] The post The Rise of and Demand for Identity-Oriented Media Coverage appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         Comments This would seem to cast doubt on the claim that the political ... by Standard My anecdata: recently the center right prime minister of my ... by JSK Vox.com in 2015: “Let's nerd out on the details of how ... by Ricardo In reply to Blake V. Without the change in supply I would ... by Dismalist In reply to Dismalist. Quantity increasing and price falling ... by Blake V Plus 10 more... Related Stories Populism fact of the day Do LLMs diminish diversity of thought? What Explains Educational Polarization Among White Voters?  ( 7 min )

In my view, pharmaceuticals are undervalued and underinvested in because, despite high prices, pharmaceutical innovations earn only a fraction of the value that they create (Nordhaus finds that in general that innovations reap only a small share of the gains that they create). In 2014, for example, we got Harvoni a new treatment that offered […] The post Pharmaceutical Externalities appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         Comments In reply to blue jay. Blue Jay says “Can't speak to ... by KT2 In reply to Mike. >But we need far less investment in me-too ... by OldCurmudgon In reply to Evolutionist. The point is to incentivize ... by Sure In reply to Rahul. We actually do this already. Rx is much, ... by OldCurmudgeon In reply to steve. Because the metric is the “Next-Best” ... by Sure Plus 10 more... Related Stories EU May Ban Payments for Milk, Sperm and Blood The British ban on bully dogs Does an AI Pause make sense?  ( 8 min )

The best written, most innovative and most modern principles textbook is now even better! Very excited about the new edition. More to say in the coming weeks! See the Invisible Hand. Understand Your World. The post Modern Principles! appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         Comments In reply to Anon. Thank you for your reply, Anon! by RD In reply to dearieme. It was lively and understandable — ... by mkt42 In reply to “Publishing is an organized hobby”. Some very ... by Gridlock In reply to RD. At the link in the original post, there will ... by Anon Can this textbook be understood by an interested layman? I'd ... by Graham Powell Plus 10 more... Related Stories My Conversation with the excellent Jerusalem Demsas My excellent Conversation with Lazarus Lake, ultra-marathons Robert Barro and Rachel McCleary to Heritage  ( 6 min )

Here is the audio, video, and transcript.  Here is the episode summary: Lazarus Lake is a renowned ultramarathon runner and designer. His most famous creation (along with his friend Raw Dog) is the Barkley Marathons, an absurdly difficult 100-mile race through the Tennessee wilderness that only 17 people have ever finished in its nearly 30-year […] The post My excellent Conversation with Lazarus Lake, ultra-marathons appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         Comments In reply to aaron. This and the above are both fine answers, ... by Matt In reply to jayson. Either that or someone with a REALLY poor ... by aaron In reply to M. Ok. 1) 'Stoicism' was mentioned once in the ... by aaron In reply to Emptiness. Ultras are perhaps better than ... by Karl Pooper In reply to ricardo. Or going back further, the biblical ... by mkt42 Plus 10 more... Related Stories My Conversation with the excellent Jerusalem Demsas Modern Principles! How AI will change student evaluation  ( 8 min )

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By 1957, Life magazine called the 1950’s “the horrible decade” for Hollywood. This didn’t change for the first part of the 1960s. Major studios were pumping millions into aging historical epics and musicals such as Hello Dolly! Cleopatra and King of Kings. With the rise of the French New Wave, Japanese cinema and Spaghetti Westerns […]  ( 11 min )

Continuing with the supplementary material for the book, from its Chapter 2. This is in reference to Galileo’s principle of relativity, a central pillar of modern science. This principle states that perfectly steady motion in a straight line is indistinguishable from no motion at all, and thus cannot be felt. This is why we don’t ... Read more  ( 13 min )

The opioid crisis, driven by fentanyl, is showing signs of slowing, with a rise in the use of synthetic stimulants taking place. The cheap and addictive Captagon — known as the ‘poor man’s cocaine’ — shows all the signs of following in fentanyl’s footsteps, according to drug trafficking expert Jim Crotty.  ( 13 min )

“I’ve glimpsed into our future and all I can say is…go back.”(Diane Court) Lately, I’ve been finding myself comparing ChatGPT to PowerPoint in my discussions with students and colleagues about artificial intelligence in higher education. PowerPoint has undeniably had a profound impact on teaching and learning at universities. In particular, it has changed the nature … Continue reading PowerGPT →  ( 6 min )

For all Bayesians and sympathisers in the Paris area, All about that Bayes seminars are restarting this semester with a talk by Kaniav Kamari (Centrale Supélec) on 10 October, 16h00, on Campus Pierre & Marie Curie, SCAI: Bayesian principal component analysis The technique of principal component analysis (PCA) has recently been expressed as the maximum […]  ( 7 min )

For all Bayesians and sympathisers in the Paris area, All about that Bayes seminars are restarting this semester with a talk by Kaniav Kamari (Centrale Supélec) on 10 October, 16h00, on Campus Pierre & Marie Curie, SCAI: Bayesian principal component analysis The technique of principal component analysis (PCA) has recently been expressed as the maximum […]  ( 7 min )

Visit the post for more.  ( 6 min )

8 Lessons I learned from Robert McKee’s “Story” that can help you write a gripping story that reads like a movie. Continue reading on The Writing Cooperative »  ( 8 min )

A guide to writing in, writing around, and writing out curse words Continue reading on The Writing Cooperative »  ( 8 min )

Today’s Write Now interview features Sachi Ediriweera, a Sri Lankan designer, filmmaker, and the writer and artist of ENLIGHTENED. Continue reading on The Writing Cooperative »  ( 8 min )

Here’s how I kept blogging, podcasting, and making videos for 10+ years. Continue reading on The Writing Cooperative »  ( 8 min )

An eccentric schoolboy embarks on a spiritual quest for hidden wonders.  ( 2 min )

A traveler returns to the country of Erewhon to find out what has happened in the twenty years since he last visited.  ( 2 min )

A visionary entrepreneur and innovator, Yoon will focus on entrepreneurship, supporting female engineers, and fostering inclusive innovation.  ( 8 min )

For savory, meaty-textured, deeply browned sautéed mushrooms, start with steam.  ( 17 min )

We invite you to take a peek at what’s in our staff’s utensil crocks, including our favorite balloon whisk, fish spatula, wooden spoon, and more.  ( 26 min )

Lids turn baking sheets into food storage containers: They can even be easily stacked in the fridge.  ( 17 min )

A government shutdown could force the Federal Emergency Management Agency to curtail all disaster activities at a time when it is already short of cash to respond to crises

Counter to the conventional wisdom, suppression of distressing thoughts could be an invaluable addition in treating depression, anxiety and trauma

For the first time in the U.S., research with cephalopods might require approval by an ethics committee

Researchers say the discovery of the earliest known wooden construction expands their knowledge of the woodworking skills of early humans that existed before Homo sapiens

Implanted electrodes pick up a pattern of brain waves that can signal the presence or absence of depression and perhaps predict its relapse

Global warming is so rampant that some scientists say we should begin altering the stratosphere to block incoming sunlight, even if it jeopardizes rain and crops

Consumers can now get easy tests for Alzheimer’s. But these tests may not really help patients that much–yet.

This spooky subterranean grotto ballroom is called the Rathskeller. Located in Louisville's Seelbach Hotel, it's the only surviving room in the world completely encrusted in Rookwood pottery, from stem to stern, and has a powerfully creepy vibe. The Bavarian-style Rathskeller Room was constructed of Rookwood Pottery in 1907. A unique work of art and the only room of its kind in the world that’s still intact, this room is an ornate, preserved part of American history. The decorations of the room were drawn by hand on the clay before firing; the design was a part of the ware. After baking, various glazes were added in subsequent firings. A portion of the ceiling is made of leather and was painted with intricate designs (including the 12 signs of the zodiac). Al Capone is said to have used secret tunnels in and out of the place as part of his organized crime operation. When F. Scott Fitzgerald was a young soldier stationed at Camp Zachary Taylor, he came into Louisville and was a frequent visitor at the Seelbach Hotel's subterranean bar. The time Fitzgerald spent there allegedly inspired parts of The Great Gatsby. The hotel is also chock-full of ghost stories. Its most infamous ghost is known as the "Lady in Blue," said to be the spirit of a young woman who died in one of the hotel's elevator shafts.  ( 13 min )

The stable political and economic environment of Switzerland has made it an attractive location for scientists for hundreds of years. A section of this history is showcased in Geneva's Musée d'Histoire des Sciences (Museum of History of Science), where the developments made between the 17th and 19th centuries are showcased alongside additional more modern tools.  In the past, science was largely an occupation for the elite, meaning that those who practiced it were either rich enough to afford it or had patrons who could pay them to pursue it. This means that everything up to their equipment was often very well made, also in a way that made the instruments pleasing to the eye besides just functional. This makes them the ideal tool to explain science with, as important parts were often laid bare for show rather than covered to be protected. Many of those instruments are on display in the museum, tools that were used in the fields of astronomy, microscopy, gnomonics, electricity, meteorology, and measuring in general.  ( 13 min )

Not long ago, if you ordered Neapolitan pizza at an Italian restaurant, you might have ended up with a slice of custard pie. The modern definition for pizza did not appear in an Italian dictionary until 1905. The Italian word pizza, which is likely related to Greek pita and Turkish pide, was originally a general term for flat baked dishes made with flour. You can still see this term in action today in dishes like pizza rustica, a rich egg-and-cheese-stuffed pie from central Italy, or pizza Ebraica, a blackened cookie made with nuts and dried fruit that originated in the Jewish quarter of Rome. Before the 20th century, the cheese pizza that we know and love was a local street food little-known outside of Naples. Some 19th-century writers who encountered cheese pizza even described it wi…  ( 21 min )

Bull sharks, says marine biologist Ryan Daly, “like to bite.” Daly and colleagues catch the famously ferocious fish off the coast of southern Mozambique and fit them with transmitters as part of a long-distance tracking project to reveal more about the animals’ habits. The team uses strong lines and circle hooks—harmless to the sharks—baited with striped bonito fish, thick rubber mats to protect the inflatable boat from sharp teeth, and something called tonic immobility: essentially, a shark’s Achilles’ heel. “Once you can get a shark upside down, they pretty much just fall asleep,” says Daly. “It's pretty incredible.” It's still unclear why sharks are prone to this state, but it may have evolved around mating behavior, with the male shark grabbing the female shark by its pectoral fi…  ( 21 min )

In 1859, the Tokugawa shogunate finally put an end to Japan's centuries-long isolation, opening the Port of Yokohama to the rest of the world. Its redevelopment demanded the establishment of a red-light district catering to the locals and foreigners alike, meant to be a place for international social exchange. Legend has it that the Ganki-rō ("stone turtle tower"), Yokohama's most opulent brothel, was home to a beautiful young courtesan named Kiyuu. Brought in from the infamous Yoshiwara pleasure district of Edo (Tokyo), it is said that she refused the company of a foreigner out of pride, writing a death poem before slitting her throat: Tsuyu wo dani / itou yamato no / ominaeshi / furu amerika ni / sode wa nurasaji. ("The eastern valerian of Japan, shunning even the dew; she shall not le…  ( 14 min )

In the town of Prrenjas, situated in eastern Albania, a once-dilapidated industrial relic has been transformed into a captivating landmark. Artist Eljan Tanini took a pair of abandoned nickel mining towers—vestiges of Albania's failed industrial aspirations under communist rule—and transformed them with an astonishing 1,380 ladybugs. Symbolizing femininity and good fortune, these ladybugs are a vibrant nod to the town's female mayor and its broader identity. During the rule of communist leader Enver Hoxha, Albania underwent a period of intense industrialization while being cut off from the rest of the world. This left a legacy of aging factories, bunkers, and mining facilities scattered across the country. Since the fall of communism, these structures have largely been abandoned, standing as solemn monuments to a repressive past. However, art projects like the one in Përrenjas demonstrate the potential for turning these sites into symbols of renewal and hope. The project was completed in just 22 days and features eco-friendly paint. The mining towers themselves go more than 300 meters underground. Additionally, a tree has sprouted 52 meters up on one of the towers, offering a striking symbol of nature's resilience. As you traverse the intriguing landscape of Albania, a stop in Prrenjas offers a unique chance to witness this extraordinary confluence of industrial decay and contemporary artistic vision. Through initiatives like this, artists are helping to redefine Albania's historical scars as canvases for cultural expression, showing that even in the most unlikely places, there's room for beauty and change.  ( 13 min )

The volunteer-driven cultural association Bolsjefabrikken (The Candy Factory) has taken its name from an abandoned candy factory, the group’s very first location, and is behind Copenhagen’s (and possibly Denmark’s) largest street art hotspot. Artists and activists have been infusing new vitality into the current Bolsjefabrikken place since 2009. Once a smithy, the locale’s exterior walls now serve as ever-transforming canvases for street artists, resulting in a captivating display of colors, shapes, and messages. Bolsjefabrikken has gained official recognition as a designated area for artistic expression, thanks to the endorsement of local authorities. This acknowledgment not only validates the art created on these walls but also nurtures a profound sense of belonging among the individuals who have rejuvenated its premises. Alongside its varied non-profit offerings, the venue hosts music performances, film screenings, and communal gatherings. Whether you’re a culture enthusiast or someone seeking an immersive urban adventure, Bolsjefabrikken offers an ever-shifting and thought-provoking experience. In this mural mecca, contemporary graffiti shines as brilliantly and boldly as the vibrant candies that were once manufactured in the factory that named the collective years ago.  ( 13 min )

John Brown State Historic Park, located in Osawatomie, Kansas, consists of two unique sites that together tell the story of the great abolitionist and his time in Kansas: the Samuel Adair Cabin, where John Brown lived while in Kansas; and the site where the Battle of Osawatomie was fought. The cabin on the premises belonged to Rev. Samuel and Florella Adair, Oberlin College graduates who moved westward with the promise of a new free state. Florella was John Brown’s half-sister, and five of his sons, and eventually John Brown himself moved to the cabin. By this time, Brown believed that he was charged by God to fight the moral scourge of slavery. The cabin became an organizing force for the abolition movement in Kansas, and a stop on the Underground Railroad, and the Adairs began to fear …  ( 14 min )

The Halte Royal d'Ardennes (the Royal Train Stop of the Ardennes) was a private train stop built for King Leopold II of Belgium and linked to the royal family's summer residence, Château royal d'Ardenne. Court architect Alphonse Balat designed the opulent residence, which was completed in 1891. Guests and royalty would use the private train stop to visit the château, which also featured extensive gardens designed by the Paris-based landscape architect Elie Lainé. Within a few years, Leopold II decided to repurpose the residence into a luxury hotel. Wealthy guests from Belgian, French, and English began to visit the hotel via the train. The hotel featured every luxury amenity of the time: running water, bathrooms, electrical lights, and even a telephone.  Both the train station and the hotel were shuttered during World War I after sustaining some damage.  The hotel and train stop briefly reopened after being restored and expanded after the war. But then, during World War II, both suffered further damage. Finally, in 1968, the hotel burned down and the train stop was abandoned. (It's not the only abandoned royal Belgian train station, either.) Despite this, the train stop is still an impressive ruin with its watch tower and stone walls. Surrounded by the River Lesse on one side and the woods and hills of the Belgian Ardennes on the other, the dilapidated station looks more like something out of a fairytale. A special architectural feature is the cobblestone driveway, spiraling out from the platform and around a central courtyard. You don't need much imagination to see the coaches lined up, waiting to pick up the VIPs of their time.  ( 14 min )

Listen and subscribe on Stitcher, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and all major podcast apps. In this episode of The Atlas Obscura Podcast, we visit a collection at the University of California, Riverside, that preserves thousands of varieties of citrus, and the folks working to ensure the future of the beloved fruits. Our podcast is an audio guide to the world’s wondrous, awe-inspiring, strange places. In under 15 minutes, we’ll take you to an incredible site, and along the way you’ll meet some fascinating people and hear their stories. Join us daily, Monday through Thursday, to explore a new wonder with cofounder Dylan Thuras and a neighborhood of Atlas Obscura reporters.  ( 15 min )

Also Goldman M&A embarrassment, leveraged loans, Chicago transaction taxes and investment committee vote weights.  ( 2 min )

Plus: Two cities, two plans to convert unused buildings into homeless shelters face community pushback; Wisconsin Legislature rejects Evers special session; Gai Noi makes New York Times Best Restaurants list; and more.  ( 7 min )

An administrator and researcher believes public assistance programs such as child support can have harmful effects on families and disproportionately affect people of color.  ( 26 min )

Part V: Fifty years after the Time magazine cover story touting Minnesota as the nation’s model state, it’s time to reassess.  ( 20 min )

Amendments to cut Ukraine aid received support from Minnesota Republican members of Congress Michelle Fischbach, Pete Stauber and Brad Finstad, who received failing grades by a group pushing to continue aid.  ( 16 min )

In all, more than 60,000 farms and 25 million acres of crop and rangeland are involved, with spending reaching all 50 states and Puerto Rico, according to the USDA.  ( 17 min )

Or not. On second thought, Biden reconsidering his decision to run for reelection is perhaps really just what this seemingly self-absorbed nation actually deserves.  ( 10 min )